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Different cultures have narratives where lying is, in certain conditions, not condemned. The Aarne-Thompson catalogue has under humour the narrative type 1920B (The one says, "I Have not Time to Lie" and yet lies) describing how a well-known liar is asked for another lie, but he replies that for some reason, he has no time to lie. In 1999, during fieldwork in western Estonia, several people narrated stories similar to this as related to specific people who has lived in the area. All versions had a common plot: a well-known lier passes the manor lady (or a miss or woman) who asks him, what he is lying about, to which he replies that he has no time for lying as a fish-seller is waiting for him. When the asker then sends somebody to get fish from him (or goes herself), it appears that no fish-hawkers are about. Versions of the narrative told by four different narrators, as well as different versions recorded from the same person, are analysed. The narrators are Eino Liiv (about the liar Hiie Jaagup), Alfred Sild with Hugo Ilvese (about the same liar), Leida Riimann (about the liar Madis Palm) and Enn Koidumäe (about Valede-Randes). Also known in the neighbourhood is the liar Kustas Mäekom. The narratives were told as if true stories, bringing out as proof that the road mentioned exists, the great liar could use it, etc. On occasion, there is even arguments as to which liar the story concerns as the narrative is still in active use in the area.
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The songs of Siberian Estonians are either those they brought from the fatherland, created on the spot or adapted from local people, mainly Russians. Songs that originate from the fatherland are mainly patriotic songs that were first used to maintain the Estonian-related identity but were later modified to help determine the connection with their home in Siberia. In the habitats of the descendants of deported Estonians (e.g. the village of Upper Suetuk) relatively more prison songs are sung than in the villages of emigrants. Some songs are partly in Russian, though such songs have also been recorded in Estonia. Some Russian songs sung were in Estonian (e.g. the "Pradyaaga song") are considered Estonian by Siberian Estonians. In addition to supplementing the repertoire, Russian songs also influence the style of performing. Thus they sing in a "tinnier" and higher voice, duets are common, girls walk on the village street singing in a loud voice. There are relatively less choir songs in Siberia, though there has been and is both an active choir and trumpet band and settlement song festivals have been held.
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The establishing of the Estonian National Museum in 1909 initiated systematic collecting of our cultural heritage as well as the endless fight for proper maintaining conditions. The museum archives started to grow rapidly and already in 1911, first exhibitions were made. As the museum collections grew, it sought new rooms. It seemed economical to build a house suited especially for the needs of a museum. With the argument that exhibiting the collected material would also greatly induce collecting and contributions, a fund for building the house was established instead of spending the money on increasing collections. Further initiative was received after a fire in the house the museum resided in: the funds started to take substantial form. Contributions were received from all over Estonia as well as from Estonians living abroad; a number of contributors were soldiers with patriotic feelings. Major daily newspapers became fund-raising centres where people sent money, and museum parties for raising money for the new house were held. Later, political instability directed people's attention to other problems. Though all kinds of plans were thoroughly discussed, they never were realised. In the end, devaluation reduced the value of the collected money.
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The article treats the song and narrative genres of the forest Nenets with an emphasis on what are or have been the connections between them, how a song is presented in the middle of a narrative or forms the core of one. Analysis is based on material collected by the authors. Since the forest Nenets claim that some of their fairy tales once used to be sung in full, historical material is used for comparison. Since there is very little older material collected from the forest Nenets, the tundra Nenets tradition was used for parallel comparison of contemporary forest Nenets material. It appears that songs that are claimed to be only fragments of longer forgotten texts, correspond in context to the tundra Nenets epic songs and apparently belong to the oldest layer of forest Nenets folklore. The structure of narrative songs reveals the relations between song and prose in them. From the narrational aspect, song depicts either a nodal point in the storyline, a whole episode, or allows for differentiating direct and indirect speech. Linguistically, there are some differences in the language of the song parts as compared to the prose parts of the narrative, where the language is closer to that of the tundra Nenets. A unique form of song is the so-called recitative: on the one hand, recited are only fragments in direct speech, on the other hand, these are used mainly to vocalised the characters from outside the ordinary world. The article includes information about the informants and the transcription of forest Nenets language used in the article.
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This treatise is dedicated to the term of historical legend as part of the scientific classification. In the future, this term should only be used in the context of research history in connection with narratives that have been called thus since the beginning of the 19th century. As a replacement, the term historical heritage is offered. Narrative research needs to conclude the research into historical heritage initiated by historians. It is just as important that historians would recognise the achievements of narrative researchers. It is either trivial or dangerous to speak of the historical core of heritage: dangerous in case this is intended to prove the validity or source value of oral heritage or to support a speculation based on lacking source material. The term folk vision of history is unsuitable as the terms nation and history are not sufficiently unambiguous. The term historical thinking is a fickle group-specific summary of different kinds of (in Ludwig Wittgenstein's terms, kindred) language usage. Historical heritage needs to be viewed as an inseparable part of its contemporary culture, i.e. first of all together with its group-specific historical development, but also the non-verbal, material media. Not all heritage that included widespread narrative motifs has been among widespread heritage. Not all heritage in the form of folk legend was generally, i.e. also among the lower and middle class, known. Legends from the 19th and 20th centuries must be taken seriously, but first of all as literary phenomenon. Their (except in the case of obvious fakes) philological classification is primary to finding in them the narratives that were transmitted orally or archaic heritage. Heritage becomes relevant for research by the crossing points of discourses characteristic to a era as expressed in versions of a single heritage narration, not as the core essence of heritage maintained in all contexts. Translation based on the German article Thesen zur Verabschiedung des Begriffs der `historischen Sage' published in Fabula 29 (1988), pp 21-47. Translated by Reet Hiiemäe.
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The article analyses the differences between a legend and a memorate. A legend is a short narrative of one episode that can have a background partially based on experience and observation but that has not emerged directly from these but instead from concepts of similar nature. Legends are created by people's ability to fabulate, while of special importance is that they have attained a fixed form that leaves little play for individuality. The other form of folk narrative is the memorate, based on individual experience, though the narrative motif may be one of the legend motifs. Legends and memorates influence each other. On the one hand, memorates often take their material from legends or legend motifs. On the other hand, memorates are a good ground for sprouting new legends. Often memorates are polished into part of the heritage, turning into legends in the process. The article views the relations of legend and memorate on the example of Scandinavian forest fairy tradition. Narratives in question range from legends to personal experience narratives. The latter are strongly influenced by folk belief. Thus, a researcher of folk belief needs to first of all study personal experience narratives. There is also a group of memorates that tends to mislead researchers - descriptions of purely personal experiences that thus characterise only the person that experienced the event. Another threat to the researcher is that lacking necessary amounts of material, no reliable conclusions can be reached. Translation based on the German article Memorat und Sage. Einige methodische Gesichtspunkte published in Saga och sed. Gustav Adolfs Akademiens årsbok 1935. Uppsala: A.-B. Lundequistska Bokhandeln, pp 120-127. Translated by Riina Link.
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What is corruption and why is it considered as a wide-spread evil? Experts working on that problem, both in developed and developing countries, in countries with old and stable democracy, as well as in the ones, where democracy has just appeared stated, that, in general, corruption means “using a public authority for private benefits”, no matter who initiates the practice first – the politician or a businessman. In Latvia corruption is ranked as a major problem on the basis of indicators used by international organizations. In this paper I will write about the present indicators connected with corruption in Latvia, find sources of this problem and show what can that mean for the future of the country and if it’s possible to develop quickly in the European Union for this one of the three “Baltic Tigers” – like it happened with Ireland. First of all we will have a glimpse on Latvia in general.
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European Commission: Moldova is invited to enter into intensified political, security, economic and cultural relations with the EU, enhanced cross border co-operation and shared responsibility in conflict prevention and conflict resolution. One of the key objectives of this action plan will be to further support a viable solution to the Transnistria conflict. The level of ambition of the relationship will depend on the degree of Moldova’s commitment to common values as well as its capacity to implement jointly agreed priorities. The pace of progress of the relationship will acknowledge fully Moldova’s efforts and concrete achievements in meeting those commitments. This Action Plan is a first step in this process. The EU Moldova Action Plan is a political document laying out the strategic objectives of the cooperation between Moldova and the EU. Implementation of the Action Plan will significantly advance the approximation of Moldovan legislation, norms and standards to those of the European Union. In this context, it will build solid foundations for further economic integration based on the adoption and implementation of economic and trade-related rules and regulations with the potential to enhance trade, investment and growth.
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Proposal laying down general provisions establishing a European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (presented by the Commission). A specific and innovative feature of the ENPI is its crossborder cooperation component. Under this component, the ENPI will finance “joint programmes” bringing together regions of Members States and partner countries sharing a common border. This will bring a radical simplification in procedures and substantial gains in efficiency. It will use an approach largely modelled on “Structural Funds” principles such as multiannual programming, partnership and cofinancing, adapted to take into account the specificities of external relations. The crossborder cooperation component of the ENPI will be cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Title III includes a set of provisions specifically designed for this component only. These provisions are consistent with similar provisions established for crossborder cooperation under the relevant Structural Funds regulations.
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In the last months it has been widely discussed and debated whether Turkey should join or not the European Union as a member with full rights. There are some who argue that Turkey is an asset for the EU, while others fear that an Islamic country will bring with it the fundamentalist threat inside the European community. Is religion the problem? Can EU be considered a Christian club as some pro-Turkey lobby-ists sustain?
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The aim of this article is to outline the main concepts used in cultural research, which denote the use of the past, to look into the trajectories of their mutual relationships, and to discuss the causes and development potential of the multi-faceted landscape of concepts that has emerged. Serving as an introduction to this thematic volume, this article creates the necessary conceptual framework for reading the following case studies. Two pairs of concepts are observed, which provide information on the modern cultural research of selected pasts: history culture and memory, and tradition–heritage. It is concluded that all the observed concepts could in the current situation be dealt with not only as fields of research, but as perspectives relevant for all areas of cultural research. Whether and to what extent the research of history culture, memory, tradition and heritage are entangled, is dependent on problem settings and objects of research, to which the respective research directions were originally related, but also connected with disciplinary contexts and academic traditions in different countries. In addition to impulses arising from inside research directions, the reason for the greater engagement of these directions could be the rise of interdisciplinary fields, which are not anchored to any specific concepts. A situation in which cultural research concepts with solid trajectories become replaceable occurs also in the case of transdisciplinary ‘turns’. The research perspectives behind different concepts are best engaged within a specific field of research, which in turn have made way to the emergence of new concepts that bridge the established ones. In the context of this thematic volume, it is meaningful to refer to the increased cross-disciplinary interest in how the representation of the past in a variety of public spheres takes place. In this respect, concepts have been taken into use that refer to the ‘public’ at different levels: from official, state-sanctioned institutions to less formal, often locally based settings, and to particular, individualised contexts.
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Kaisa Kulasalu gives an overview of the seminar “Estonian Digital Humanities Anno 2013: IT-Applications in Humanities”, which took place at the Estonian Literary Museum on October 25, 2013.
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Christa Agnes Tuczay. Die Herzesser. Dämonische Verbrechen in der Donaumonarchie. Wien: Seifert Verlag 2007. 160 pp. An introduction of the book by Reet Hiiemäe.
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