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Azerbaijan jails a tenacious raker of official mud. Plus, Tajikistan bans Islamist party and a blacklisted Russian singer is given permission for EU entry on medical grounds.
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In our paper, we have developed a list of modes for audience engagement on social media on the basis of the Facebook posts of selected museums in Latvia and Estonia. Within the frame of our study, the museums’ Facebook posts covering a timespan of one year have been analysed using the method of close reading and applying the principles of grounded theory. A multi-dimensional approach to various modes of engagement is proposed in order to involve different visitors in the activities of the museum, and considering different functions of the message. The results of the paper are applicable when considering diverse repertoires for modes of engagement with the museum’s audiences on social media, as well as when engaging with them on-site. The paper contributes to the trend of democratisation within the museum context by exploring the potential of museums when forging their relationships with their visitors.
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We intend to explore the production of the Finno-Ugric exhibitions at the Estonian National Museum. Our particular aim is to reveal methodological changes of ethnographic reproduction and to contextualise the museum’s current efforts in ideologically positioning of the permanent exhibition. Through historical–hermeneutical analysis we plan to establish particular museological trends at the Estonian National Museum that have led curators to the current ideological position. The history of the Finno-Ugric displays at the Estonian National Museum and comparative analysis of international museological practices enable us to reveal and interpret different approaches to ethnographic reconstructions. When exhibiting indigenous cultures, one needs to balance ethnographic charisma with the ethics of display. In order to employ the approach of ethical attraction, curators must comprehend indigenous cultural logic while building up ethnographic representations.
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This paper focuses on the meanings assigned to the Tatar language among the Tatar diaspora in Estonia. According to interviews with Estonian Tatars, language is an important aspect of Tatar ethnic identity. This paper will track common discourses about the Tatar language and the way it is connected to Tatar ethnic identity. Issues concerning the Tatar language are used to demonstrate various ways of enacting Tatarness in Estonia. The paper shows that Estonian Tatars worry about the vitality and purity of Tatar, but for some, marginalisation of dialects is also an issue. People categorised with the same identity labels by themselves and others can experience and enact their Tatarness in a variety of different ways.
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The tale motif of the shamanic tale competition is examined with due regard for the interpretation given by the Nanai storyteller-shamans from the standpoint of their personal spiritual experience. In shamanic practice it is not the personal ability (skill or physical power) that provides a challenger victory in conflict, but obtaining spirits-helpers more powerful than those of his or her rival. The predominate role of these fantastic personages/helpers in tales that represent invisible spirit helpers perform real shamanic praxis, explains the loser’s unconditional submission and readiness to sacrifice their freedom or life to the winner. It also clarifies the motivation of the initiators of these contests and games: by means of gathering a great number of competitors, such shamans solve their personal spiritual problems, such as the need to overcome their adversaries or find allies in the struggle against their opponents.
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This paper argues that researchers doing ethnography can fail in their commitment to take what their informants say seriously. This often occurs, despite ethnographers’ best intentions, when informant statements depart radically from Western distinctions between what is real and what is imaginary. When informants talk about things like ghosts, witches and magic, there is a tendency to apply analytic strategies which translate these informant statements about the world so they conform to Western understandings about what is possible in the world and what is not. This article describes for example some commonly applied interpretive moves used in dealing with informant statements about other-than-human persons. The analytic models and categories we use in these cases are equivalent to often tacit and taken-for-granted Western strategies for dealing with ‘non-existent things’ and these make it impossible to take native statements at face value. We could turn the situation around in ethnographic analyses if we put under the microscope our own Western taken-for-granted assumptions and did so by taking definitions of reality, community, and the person radically different from our own seriously.
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Four contexts are identified in Bengali folklore where the word mā (meaning ‘mother’) is used. The first involves a situation of basic and biologically prompted kinship. The second and the third describe situations within the extended family and the community, where the use of the same word contributes to ambiguity reduction and creation of sexual boundaries. The fourth uses the word for honoring goddesses who offer protection from evil outsiders, famines, poverty, ignorance, and from snakes and diseases. The fourth context includes referring to the landmass of Bengal (before 1947) as a mā. It is then suggested that the use of the word mā is multifunctional in Bengali culture. Further, the attribution of motherhood empowers human women somewhat in a highly patriarchal society, and the storylines developed give appearances of logic in popular form.
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This paper explores the material culture of ‘karakat’ (Russian karakatitsa) hybrid vehicles in the town of Kallaste, east Estonia. It focuses on the social factors that allow karakat culture to change. The region of study was part of the Soviet Union so the phenomenon of self-assembled vehicles implies socialist and communist considerations. Local people are still surrounded by the material legacy of that time. Technological assemblages from the past therefore continue to live in the present. It was popular in the USSR to maintain off-road vehicles, which were put together with the owner’s own hands. Such a bricolage technique has been preserved since the middle of the 20th century and is something that is used as a marker of local identity. The distribution of spare parts was problematic in former Soviet times and this has influenced the way men now make karakats. Current owners spend a lot of time servicing their vehicles. The issue of masculinity is highly relevant here because dealing with technology is seen as a masculine activity. Moreover, because it is increasingly open to tourists, karakat culture is becoming a tradable commodity.
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This paper is a study of the traditional use of a special kind of wood in bow construction in Eurasia and North America. This special kind of wood, called compression wood and coming from coniferous trees, has unique qualities that makes it suitable for bow construction. Bows made using this special wood have been referred to as Finno-Ugric bows, Sámi bows, Two-Wood bows and Eurasia laminated bows. These bows appear to have developed from archaic forms of compression wood self bows that were made from a single piece of wood. Recently features similar to the Eurasian compression wood bows have been discovered in bows originating from Alaska, and the use of compression wood for bow manufacture has been known to some Canadian Inuit groups. This paper addresses the origin and possible diffusion pattern of this innovation in bow technology in Eurasia and suggests a timeframe and a possible source for the transfer of this knowledge to North America. This paper also discusses the role of the Asiatic composite bow in the development of bows in Eurasia.
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For visual documents that occur within the family or are related to an individual’s life, which also show exceptional moments during the flow of time of a family, or this concerns the rites of passage (wedding, childbirth, baptism, children’s birthdays, death, etc.), it is being considered that that type of matter represents the ideal picture of a person or his family. But, in regards to the research of photography, we will take into consideration its communication aspect. The emphasis is placed on the experience gained during my own field researches, when the subject of interest were the rites of the family cycle, especially the wedding, but also the rites of baptism, childbirth, when these moment were told to me numerous times with the help of photography. The glorious relationship that existed between the photo and the opportunity it offered for making a photo-story was especially emphasized when the narrators carefully took out their preserved photographs. The fast development of photography is characterized with the emergence of the family photo-albums, which were originally classified following the history of life, following the themes of the main phases of a life cycle. In this context, we might mention family albums with pictures of new-borns, christening, weddings, etc.
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The visual documentation of the city was a lengthy process of research, which was the result of ethnological survey carried out in the city for many years. The process of exploring the various segments of the cultural and historical development of the city evolves and upgrades every year by observing the changes in its social-economic development. This is my personal insight (experiment) into visual anthropology, which is important from the present perspective.
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За визуелните документи што настануваат во состав на семејството или се поврзани со животот на определена личност, кои исто така бележат исклучител- ни моменти од текот на постоењето на едно семејство или пак ги документираат об- редите на премин (свадба, раѓање на дете, родендени, смрт и сл.), се смета дека го отсликуваат идеотипското доживување на самиот себе или на семејството. Но, во истражувањето ќе се земе предвид комуникацискиот аспект што го нудат фотогра- фиите во текот на теренското истражување. Акцентот е ставен на искуството здо- биено при сопствените теренски истражувања кога предмет на интерес беа обреди- те од семејниот циклус, особено свадбата, но и обредите при крштевка, раѓање на дете, кога овие моменти во многу случаи ми беа раскажувани со помош на фотогра- фија. Величествениот однос кон фотографијата, но и можноста за правење фотоп- рикаска, особено доаѓаше до израз кога кажувачите ќе ги извадеа грижливо чувани- те фотографии. Понатамошниот брз развој на фотографијата овозможува јавување на семејните фотоалбуми, кои се најпрво животно-историски класификации, тема- тизирајќи ги главните фази од животниот циклус. Во овој контекст можат да се спо- менат семејните албуми со новороденче, крштевка, свадба итн.
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Visual records of human behaviour with a camera in Macedonia started at the beginning of the 20th century. Ethnologists’ interest in the camera has been shown by the production of documentaries in the middle of the 20th century and by attempts for outdoor research using camera in the 60s. The use of camera in outdoor research with the current ethnologists is still at a very modest level. In this text I am going to present my personal experience with the camera during site research, mostly in regards to nonmaterial cultural heritage.
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In the following essay the authors discuss visual anthropology based upon their own experiences with ethnographic films. Through the analysis of their work they are thinking about visual representations that are created through the process of making and presenting different visual materials. Both processes include important ethical issues, as well as other problems that we face when using methods of visual anthropology.
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Визуелната антропологија никогаш не била целосно инкорпорирана во главните текови на антропологијата. Долго време антрополошките филмови се сме- тале само како објективен запис за реалноста, кој служи за натамошна анализа, за потоа да бидат складирани во архивите, или како аудиовизуелна помош во проце- сот на образованието. Искуството што го стекнав на терен говори во прилог на сѐ подоминантната теза дека визуелната антропологија, исто како и пишуваниот текст, е наративно средство за пренесување на антрополошкото знаење. Во мојот случај станува збор за антропологија на жената – тема што сѐ до седумдесеттите години на XX век била „невидлива“, како во општествените науки така и во филмот.
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