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Bratislav Ivanov's new book is dedicated to the values and traditions of the Japanese culture. Already in the early twentieth century, French scientist Henry Dumolard draws attention to the fact that the Japanese people are guided by their logic and draw conclusions that are often incomprehensible to Europeans. To understand the Japanese people, we need to know the values that form the core of their culture. A key to their understanding is the geographical environment, mythology, religion, and Japan's history.
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The book studies the Ancient Egyptian religion. The author describes the creation and its driving forces through the view of Egyptian concepts. The idea of God and the divine manifestations, the place of man in the world and the ways to achieve immortality are explored. The exposition is based on the study of ancient hieroglyphic texts and is illustrated with numerous examples. The book is intended for a wide range of readers who are interested in the religion and culture of Ancient Egypt. It contains three chapters: the world of gods, the creation of the world and the world of men. Special attention is paid on the concept of the kingship in Ancient Egypt. The Egyptian terminology and the names of gods and goddesses are formed as a dictionary at the еnd of the book.
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This modern translation of all the surviving literary compositions ascribed to Liudprand, the bishop of Cremona from 962 to 972, offers unrivaled insight into society and culture in western Europe during the "iron century". Since Liudprand enjoyed the favor of the Saxon Roman emperor Otto the Great, and traveled to Constantinople more than once on official business, his narratives also reveal European attitudes toward the Byzantine Empire and the culture of its refined capital city. No other tenth-century writer had such privileged access to the high spheres of power, or such acerbic wit and willingness to articulate critiques of the doings of powerful people. Liudprand's historical texts (the Antapodosis on European events in the first half of the 900s, and his Historia Ottonison the rise to power of Otto the Great) provide a unique view of the recent past against a genuinely European backdrop, unusual in a time of localized cultural horizons. Liudprand's famous satirical description of his misadventures as Ottonian legate at the Byzantine court in 968 is a vital source of information on Byzantine ritual and diplomatic process, as well as a classic of medieval intercultural encounter. Readers interested in medieval European culture, the history of diplomacy, Italian and German medieval history, and the history of Byzantium will find this collection of translated texts rewarding. A full introduction and extensive notes help readers to place Liudprand's writings in context.
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Evliya Celebi was an enlightened man in a variety of ways who believed in equality, freedom of thought and intellectual debate, and found all of these things present in Islamic societies. Over the course of his travels, he wrote ten volumes detailing his adventures. ‘Seyahatname’ – Book of Travels – is a unique and important text, representing one of the few accounts of the 17th century and the Ottoman world from the perspective of a Muslim. These are not just factual accounts, Evliya had a great imagination and just as important as his journal entries were the imaginative storytelling that ran alongside, elaborating, exaggerating, and fantasizing. Through his stories, we are prompted to think more imaginatively about our own travels and journeys to other cities. This 17th-century Muslim traveler can sometimes seem narrow-minded and yet this same man can stand in St Stephens Cathedral in Vienna and be moved by the music he hears. Sometimes these encounters lead to nothing but sometimes they lead to stories which are so deeply felt, and so universally melodic that they leave echoes which can still be heard and felt today. In 2011, the year which would have been his 400th birthday, Evliya is being paid homage as UNESCO’s Man of the Year.
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This book represents a study of the textology, typology, sources and literary peculiarities of the so-called ’miscellanies of mixed content' in the South Slavonic tradition (from the end of 13th – the beginning of 18th c.) – less known or unknown in the Humanities. The problem is closely related to the apocryphal collections in the Balkan Cyrillic manuscripts, as the Apocrypha are a significant part of this type of manuscripts. The scope of the study is to popularize the series and texts that fill the gap in the translation and perception of the Slavonic Apocrypha. New information is presented over the sources of translations, as well as the compilation approach of Slavonic writers, which reproduces a new version of the texts. The copies of the Slavonic texts are published in the supplement. The typology of manuscripts is supported by plectograms produced in the Repertory of Old Bulgarian Literature and Letters (http://repertorium.obdurodon.org/).
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Recently, reduced interest in the diplomatic struggle for the recognizing of the new Yugoslav state in the Russian historiography. The reason is that in Soviet times the topic of relations AVNOJ and the USSR in this period has been given sufficient attention. And despite some discussion, the topic is fairly investigated. However, the problem of international recognizing of the new Yugoslavia is beyond the scope of relations between the USSR and the partisan commanders. It includes a set of international issues related to the struggle between the great powers for the organization of the postwar European order. In the Soviet historiography begins researching of this topic in a short time after the Second World War end. But the majority of researcher studied the soviet struggle for new Yugoslavia recognizing only. Moreover owing to peculiarity of the soviet archive system were almost all of the soviet sources without attention. Besides were not well-known the British sources. Consequently there are some questions, which are some discussion and now there about. The Soviet-Partisans relations in November–December 1943 connected with the summit in Jajce The Change of the British-American strategy towards Yugoslavia and their Michailovich give up The Tito summits with Churchill and Shubashich in the summer of 1944 The Tito secret visit to Moscow in September 1944 and the contents of his speaking to Stalin The British-Soviet negotiations in autumn of 1944 and the „procent agreement”. Consequently is this topic of present interest. But its researching isn’t possible without renovating of source base, especially without using the sources of the soviet foreign policy on the end of the Second World war. Moreover is also necessary to change the methodology and examine this problem in the context of relations between the great powers.
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Considering the chronological framework of modern times and the so-called “long 19th century” with reference to the Balkans, the author comes to the conclusion that, for the Balkans, the 19th century was actually “short” and fit into 36 years - the period between the Congress of Berlin in 1878 and the beginning of World War I in 1914. History allotted quite a short period for the Balkans to pass their way back to Europe, from gaining independence to the “Europeanization” of all life aspects. Being very important for the history of the Balkans, this period has attracted the researchers’ interest and has led to the appearance of numerous scientific works devoted to this period.
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Пре разматрања једне овакве теме, читалац мора увек имати на уму да не постоји нешто јединствено што би назвали „српска историографија“ и њој насупрот „светска историографија“. Једна – априорно претежно „традиционална“ (често обележена као „националистичка“ или „митоманска“), друга – модерна, баштиник нових метода, избалансирана. По нашем разумевању и искуству постоји низ индивидуалних подухвата на обе стране, али и трендови, вододелнице међу њима које са много скрупула треба идентификовати и обележити. Дебате о традицији и модернизацији на овом простору не воде се само у крилу историјске науке, подједнако су укључени социолози, антрополози, правници, економисти и други. Ако су историчари обзирни према карактеру извора (нажалост не сви) код других дисциплина често мањкају знања из историје општег друштвеног контекста неког времена. Историчари, с друге стране, нису понекад обзирни према социолошким, економским или социопсихолошким категоријама. У више радова упозоравали смо на непознавање, али и олако баратање теоријама и моделима који су развијени на основу потпуно друге историјске емпирије од оне на коју их поједини аутори шаблонски примењују. [...]
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Теорије модернизације су у основи теорије трансформације националних држава и друштава, па су и радови о трансформацијским процесима заправо најчешће посвећени разним појавним облицима модернизације. Постоји сагласност теоретичара да је модернизација вид друштвене промене који је и трансформациони (по свом утицају) и прогресиван (према својим ефектима). Иако сложен процес широког обима, она не мора нужно захватити сваку институцију, али би требало да, попут ланчане реакције, трансформише једну институционалну сферу на такав начин да ова произведе комплементарне трансформације у суседној сфери. У покушају да што прецизније дефинишу модернизацију аутори углавном посежу за дешифровањем контрастног поља које раздваја традиционално од модерног. [...]
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The ideological and political changes in the Balkans at the end of the Second World War had a great impact on both the publishing policy and the contents of history textbooks. Due to a way in which communism was established in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, as well as because of changes initiated by the Resolution of IB, the educational publishing policies in these two countries were quite different. The Soviet model of a textbook written by Evgeny Alexeyevich Kosminsky „History of the Middle Ages” was translated in both countries, infl uencing changes in interpretations of national history. The model was introduced in Yugoslavia immediately after the war, as a result of a complex ethnic structure, but also due to a desire of Yugoslav communists to present them as a vanguard in spreading the Soviet influence. On the other hand, since Bulgaria was a country of „people’s democracy” (just like GDR, Poland, or Romania), the Soviet textbook was translated and introduced in history teaching as a consequence of consolidation within the Eastern Bloc after the Tito-Stalin conflict. Since the Soviet textbook was concentrated mainly on general history, neglecting the history of Yugoslav and Bulgarian nations, the education authorities in Sofia supplemented their edition with lessons from national history. After the Resolution of IB, the Yugoslav authorities have approved the writing of new history textbooks in which the history of South Slavs preceded the national history of „new Yugoslavia”. The most radical change in history textbooks in both countries concerned the harmonization of national history with the Marxist ideology. Furthermore, the history of the Byzantine Empire was modifi ed in accordance with the requirements of current ideology, while the question of Bulgarian ethnogenesis has undergone signifi cant interpretive changes: due to ideological requirements during the first post-war decade, modern Bulgarians in Bulgarian history textbooks turned from the people of Turkish origin into a purely Slavic nation. All the textbooks published immediately after the Second World War showed a high degree of ideologization of medieval history.
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The article is focused on the active, emancipatory and counter-hegemonic potential of yugonostalgia and its creative inspiration. It is arguing that nostalgia is much more than an intimate, passive and bitter-sweet story invented by post-Yugoslavs to lament on their better past, but a new liberating discourse and an ideological platform with the potential to influence current political developments.
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It is not a novus in scientific and public discourse to insist on forgetting the “burdening” past. Just as Friedrich Nietzsche did not find anything valuable in the memory of evil, believing that turning back turns us against life, so also lately, at the time of the strongest wave of genocide denial against Bosniaks, there are tendencies in public discourse that victims should forget evil committed against them. The oblivion is presented as a precondition for the way forward, the way to a common and better future, the way to development of the state and society of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is forgotten that evil is “repetitive” as Hannah Arendt says regardless of the punishment. Once a specific crime occurs, its recurrence is much more likely than the possibility of its occurrence. The continuity of the centuries-long recurrence of crimes against Bosniaks, which is in fact a matter of the identity of the state and society of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also of Bosniaks as victims, is an adequate example and proof of this attitude. The continuity of the centuries-long recurrence of crimes against Bosniaks, which in fact represents a matter of the identity of the Bosnian state and society, but also of Bosniaks as victims, is an adequate example and proof of this attitude. Consequently, in this paper we will look at (un)conscious ways and methods of denying genocide against Bosniaks, identify new methods of denial, certain deviance dealing in the aftermath genocide, but also to give recommendations in which direction the study of genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina should go in order to adequately remember it, and finally stop the evil of genocide against Bosniaks that has lasted for several centuries.
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Many will claim that life without pain is not a life. Yet, pain makes life so much harder to bear. In its fullness, pain takes life away from the present moment leading it into a longing for a time of its absence (even if this would mean the end of life itself). If life is defined by pain is it worth living? After all, we may not be experiencing pain in every moment but every moment carries a potentiality for pain. While its presence may vary from person to person, we all share this intimate exposure and vulnerability to pain and it is part of what defines us as humans. How we deal with pain on an individual level is not entirely in our control. Culture and the society we are embedded in provide us with the vocabulary for communicating pain and the stance on its value. The question then arises: How do we treat pain on a cultural and individual level? Bodily, sensory pain is perceived spontaneously, directly. Our bodies and their senses make us vulnerable to pain as well as susceptible to the pleasures of its opposites. Pain is defined as exclusively negative making our attitude one of resistance and the desire to be rid of it. This is, in itself, a result of a historically and culturally shaped vision. Simultaneously with avoiding it, however, we encourage and stimulate it, we seek it and it fascinates us. In any case, there is no indifference in or towards pain. When we are the ones inflicting it (torture, sadism), usually we seek explanations and further insight into this behavior. This paper aims to provide this insight. Torture and sadism, extreme forms of inflicting pain, were one of the instruments of committing genocide of Bosniaks in Srebrenica, July 1995. Our general conclusion is that pain, especially in its extreme form, cannot be perceived as anything other than pure negativity of human suffering.
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In an attempt to capture the beginnings of modernity in Mircea Florian's philosophy (and, implicitly, in Romanian philosophy in the twentieth century) we start from the philosophy of recessiveness developed by the Romanian thinker and discuss, for a start, the relationship between philosophy and nation, on the one hand , and the relationship between Romanian philosophy and universal philosophy, on the other hand. In both cases, the recessive ratio indicates a duality. Philosophy means infinity, generality, totality, and the nation expresses the essence, the real, the individual. The dominant term is philosophy, and the nation is recessive. Mircea Florian accentuated the state of Romanian philosophy through a series of rules of philosophical conduct, thus affirming its autonomy from other fields of spirit and recognizing its existence in a national context.
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The first part of this text focuses on revision of epistemological postulates, theoretical conceptions and methodological procedures of historical discipline which have been generated by the linguistic and cultural turns during the last two decades. On the epistemological level, these revisionist tendencies are marked by an attempt to establish a dialectic relationship between discursive and non-discursive practices as well as to “embody” historical actors and “materialize” culture. Alongside, “experience” and “practice” have been inaugurated as dominant metatheoretical categories of the contemporary historical discipline. Second part of this text deals with the impulses that historical discipline can absorb from transdisciplinary exchange with various approaches and paradigms of humanities and social sciences (cultural theory, sociology of emotions) as well as of life-sciences (neuroscience) on the example of neurohistory and history of emotions. It is argued that, in this manner, history will be able to increase its own cognitive and interpretative potentials and become creative and imaginative research practice.
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