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Review of: Dana Goldstein "The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession"; by: Kovács Edina
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Review of: Dana Goldstein "The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession"; by: Kovács Edina
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The primary goal of this research was to examine the processing of emotionally valenced and neutral words in the context of bilingualism. The objective was to find out, using an experimental measure of automatic emotional activation, if there were differences in response time in the first and the second language, Hungarian and Serbian respectively. The sample consisted of early Hungarian–Serbian bilinguals, assimilated into the Serbian majority culture. The emotional Stroop task is an experimental paradigm, which has been adapted to measurebilingual population in the past few years. The emotional Stroop interference could be counted from response time latencies, which is usually an effect showing longer responses to negative vs. neutral information. Hungarian and Serbian negatively, positively and neutrally valenced words were used in the research. Our hypothesis was that there would be a similar emotional activation in the first and the second language and that negative words would be processed the longest. The result of the research was a significant main effect of word type, where the negative information captured the attention for a longer period of time than the neutral one. A similar pattern of word processing showed in both languages, there were no significant differences between Hungarian and Serbian reaction times and the interaction between word type and language was not significant. The results suggested that early Hungarian–Serbian bilinguals were equally effective and fast in monitoring emotional information in both of their languages, giving emphasis through more elaborative processing to the threatening stimuli.
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Having been himself a witness of these events, László Beke describes the spirit that inspired the Hungarian-Romanian relationship in the beginning of the 1990s. He identifies a kind of hide-and-seek game played by contemporary art and the nation, as well as an effort undertaken in search of good neighbourly relations, somewhere at the intersection of cosmopolitism and provincialism.
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Slavonia and Croatia belonged to the Habsburg controlled part of the Kingdom of Hungary. As a result of the Ottoman conquest, the two provinces merged into a single territorial entity, and this study discusses this process. The noble society and the public administration of Croatia and Slavonia had fewer and fewer links with the Hungarian institutions due to economic, religious and military reasons. However, in the meantime they established close relationships with the Habsburg dynasty and the Austrian hereditary provinces. The local nobility developed the idea of the independent Croatian state in the 16th–17th centuries, and thus, the territory could not reintegrate completely into the Kingdom of Hungary in the early 18th century.
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The study analyses Ottoman clay tobacco pipes from the River Drava region (Barcs, Babócsa, Szigetvár). Some are stray finds, but many of those from Barcs are from the Ottoman palisaded stronghold there, from its Ottoman layer. The study fills a gap in the literature in that it presents hitherto unpublished pipe finds from this region. The goal of the research was to establish whether in addition to characteristics that were uniform countrywide, regional features, too, could be pointed out, and whether there were links between pieces which permitted the hypothesising of common workshops or trade routes. In the background of the similarities, waterborne trade conducted along the Drava and Danube rivers may be considered important, but other factors, too, may have had a role, e.g. various population movements and also redeployments of soldiers. In the light of the written data, Szigetvár had a workshop which produced clay tobacco pipes; kindred finds from the region can, perhaps, be brought into connection with this workshop.
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The study discusses the burials containing folding iron chairs of indigenous elite in NE-Pannonia. Folding iron chairs have been recovered from forty-two richly furnished burials dating from the 1st–3rd centuries AD in the European border provinces of the Roman Empire, from Britain to Thrace. Most Hungarian and international scholars agree that these chairs were symbols of rank and that the graves containing folding chairs of this type were the burials of municipal magistrates. The author rejects the interpretation that the chairs indicated the status or office of the deceased, suggesting instead that these chairs had been part of instrumenta balnei and/or toiletry sets. His arguments are based on the analysis of the currently known elite burials with iron chairs (listed in Appendix I), the position of the chairs in the grave and their occurrence together with bathing paraphernalia, as well as on various depictions.
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Preceding the building of a residential community a rescue excavation was carried out east of Szombathely at Vép in 2005. The site provided finds and phenomena from distinct archaeological periods. One of the unearthed pit complexes, Feature 169 contained specific vessel fragments and three loaf-shaped idols (Brotlaibidole) which are subjects for the present study. These finds can be dated to the end of the Bz A2 period and possibly to the beginning of the Bz B1 period as well. The site is located in the supposed zone of interference at the river Rába and its tributaries in the Prealpine area, characterized by a blending of elements of the Mad’arovce and Věteřov Cultures of Aunjetitz origin, the Litzenkeramik and the early Tumulus Culture.
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Discussed in this brief paper is the origin of the name of Lake Barátok tava (“friars’ lake”) on the outskirts of Kisszékely in County Tolna in the light of the evidence offered by landscape archaeology and the written documents. According to the literary sources, the Dominican friary of Simontornya received two fishponds in an area called Tömörkény puszta. The data contained in medieval charters suggested that the medieval village by Lake Barátok tava could be identified with the perished settlement of Temerkény, and thus it seems likely that Lake Barátok tava and Lake Csádés-tó lying near it were the two fishponds donated to the Dominican friars of Simontornya.
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Woodland industries and trades in Hungary’s northern central hills. In the sevententh and eighteenth centuries the region’s glassworks and iron forges depended on wood for fuel. It was then that Slovak forestry workers settled in the hilly interiors of Hungary’s northern counties. Apart from the felling of trees and the carriage of timber, employment came in the form of the fashioning of wooden pit props and shingles, and from the second half of the 19th century the production of railway sleepers. In the hearts of the hilly regions there were many who produced handles for tools and farming implements, yokes and baskets for sale. These they traded on the Great Plain in return for wheat and maize. The technology and modes of employment associated with charcoal and limeburning were prevalent until the middle of the 20th century. Woodland shelters were continually being built by those working in the forests to protect them against the elements. These structures took many forms.
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The study examines the short-necked lute-type instrument held by a musical angel in one of the Gothic niches in the node of a 15th century gilded silver chalice made in Transylvania. It gives a brief survey of the history of the Hungarian kobza in the Middle Ages and later. It is thought that the modern kobza still in use among Moldavian Hungarians up to the end of the 20th century was born in the course of the 18th century, but in reality the instrument and its old name of Turkish origin can be identified only from the 1870s. The author has reached the conclusion that this short-necked lute-type instrument with a staved body was probably developed from an earlier, more primitive instrument hewn from a single block of wood (neck + body) and with a weaker resonance. And he discovers this instrument in the hands of the musical angel on the Nyári chalice. Hungarian and international researchers have long been aware that the name kobza was once used to describe a wide variety of instruments, mainly in Asia. However, in future it must also be taken into account that there are a number of instruments that, although they have different names, are essentially the same as the kobza in structure and proportions, or do not differ substantially. Evidence of this can be found in mediaeval portrayals from Central Asia, Europe and the Middle East. All data collection and comparative investigations in these regions can give new impetus to future Hungarian and international research on this short-necked lute.
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This article seeks to highlight the understanding of and insight into the African ritual of animal slaughtering in South Africa. Reference will be made to the ritual as performed by the African National Congress (ANC) activist, Tony Yengeni after being released from prison in 2007. Furthermore, the paper shows its implications for current debates on intangible heritage and human rights in South Africa. It adopts a descriptive and narrative approach to the issue of animal slaughtering for the purpose of ritual performance. The questions asked in this paper are developed within a discussion of the academic and policy literature relevant to intangible cultural heritage. The paper shows the utilisation of heritage discourses in debates over multiculturalism. In evaluating Tony Yengeni’s case, a more comprehensive approach is developed in order to give a better appreciation of the intangible cultural heritage as a source of cultural identity, creativity and diversity. Through this paper, a moderate understanding of the different types of rituals performed in South Africa is acknowledged. It is through this understanding, that the notion of a ‘united Rainbow Nation’ may be achieved.
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The immediate impulse for this paper came from the author’s empirical involvement with the topics concerning “social culture” while dealing with ethnocartography used in a historically oriented ethnology. This auxiliary heuristic technique is being observed as the jigsaw puzzle of the “old” and the “new” theoretical commitments in Croatian ethnology in the 1970s and 1980s. Although ethnological cartography (not having the methodological power to holistically depict culture, but to particulate/atomize it) represents only one of the possible ways of gaining knowledge in ethnological research, on the basis of two main thematic wholes – the concept of history and the object of research – the author’s aim is to defend those principal characteristics of ethnocartography deemed indispensable, the ones that sustain and defend its relevance and existence.
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This article concentrates on everyday life in the twin-city of Tornio−Haparanda, which is situated in the cross-border region of the Tornio River Valley between Finland and Sweden. The Tornio River Valley was divided after the Finnish War of 1809 and, until then, people spoke the same language and shared the same culture and religion. Today, the Tornio River Valley area is a frontier district where the political – or national – boundaries do not coincide with the cultural and linguistic boundaries. The multiethnic border zone of the Tornio River Valley is vital area for the hybridisation of cultures as well as for the study of power relations and everyday activities. The towns have many forms of co-operation in different sectors. In my ongoing research I am more interested in the everyday transnationalism which is experienced by the town dwellers.
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There are seven silver and brass charms called khiar (“cucumber”) in the Armenian History Museum’s collection of amulets. They originated in Moks, Gyavash and other regions of Western Armenia and in Yerevan (Eastern Armenia) in the 19th century. These ornamented charms with pendants and chains are prismatic and cylindrical in shape. They are hollow and are supposed to have written prayers inside them, though only one paper is preserved. Like the plant itself, these khiar-s symbolize the phallus with its connotations of fertility, fruitfulness, renewal, rebirth, revival. These objects are also believed to give protection from evil spirits and the evil eye. Owing to these meanings women used to wear khiar-s, believing that the objects would protect them from harm and help them to have children. In popular beliefs it was common to ascribe preternatural power to parts of the human body. And the most important parts were the endings – head, feet, hair, nails and phallus, which embodied the idea of growth and initiated life. Phallic decorations of different periods are valuable not only from the point of view of folk beliefs but also as precious samples of decorative art.
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A new building inscription from Intercisa. The paper includes the description and complementation of a building inscription found in the late Roman cemetery of Intercisa in 2003. The inscription consists of 3 lines and on the basis of the imperial epithet (Antoniniana) in the last line it can be dated to the age of Caracalla (the name of the emperor in the first line and his titulature in the second was complemented accordingly), whereas the third line contained the name of the garrison: cohors I Aurelia Antonina milliaria Hemesenorum sagittaria equitata. The provenance of the inscription is secondary, thus we cannot determine the building where the inscription was originally erected.
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One of the fundamental events in the formation of the medieval European continent was the transition to more complex organisational structures, even for the inhabitants of the territories beyond the Roman limes. The historical-social transformation movement of the western European world and the new multiethnic composition of the new Roman-Germanic societies were only two of the consequences of the collapse of the division between the highly-developed Mediterranean world and the areas not directly controlled by Rome where, however, stable socio-economic organisational forms had still developed, involving both the steppe and the Germanic populations. Even if it never was an insuperable boundary for all those who lived in the areas not under Roman control, the limes forever lost that ideological concept of barrier and border between two diverse and opposing worlds. The mechanism that caused such consequences involved very complex processes that, as they occurred, affected the environmental geographic conditions as well as the local traditions and ethnic affinities. The populations that continued to live in the areas beyond the Pannonian border introduced themselves into the stream of cultural transformations that arose in that part of the post-Roman European territories between Late Antiquity and the early medieval centuries. It would still be several centuries before this change would complete its natural cycle. In the end, the tribal societies disappeared and new social and cultural structures arose. This helped to spread new ways of using nature, new standards for social co-existence and a new vision of the world.
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New data on the Late Neolithic settlement structure in South-East Transdanubia. The paper presents the recent survey results achieved at four Late Neolithic sites with rondels in Baranya County, Hungary (Villánykövesd–Jakabfalusi út mente, Zengôvárkony–Igaz-dûlô, Szemely-Hegyes, Belvárdgyula-Szarkahegy). The combined use of non-destructive archaeological prospecting methods (aerial survey, field survey, magnetometer survey) and occassional trial trenching revealed new pieces of information that change our view of the Late Neolithic settlement structure in the region. Such observations are: – the fact that rondels are present at virtually every major site in South-East Baranya; – the presence of special structural elements known only in South Transdanubia, like U-shaped blocking of entrances, special gate structures; – the large size of rondels when compared to other areas of longer history of research, like Lower Austria and Slovakia. These phenomena suggest the existence of a local „architectural style” and may be indicative of a local group within the Lengyel Culture sphere.
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In this paper, the authors discuss the dog offerings and dog burials found at the Lengyel culture (Late Neo litic/Early Copper Age) cemetery and settlement of Alsónyék-Bátaszék (sites 10/B and 5603/1). The role and symbolism of dog in the Neolithic and Early Copper Age are concerned based on archaeological, anthropological and archaeozoological data. The authors also analyse the social status of individuals next to whom the dogs have been buried. In addition to the presentation of Lengyel culture finds, a review on the Neolithic and Early Copper Age dog finds from Central and South-East Europe is given.
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Two red slipped jugs with applied decoration were found during the excavations on the area of the former Óbuda Gas Factory. According to the morphological traits and the decoration, both items belong to the African Red Slip Wares (ARS) with applied decoration, within them in the group of the so-called El-Aouja wares. According to the qualitative traits (very finely tempered clay, shiny red slip), these items belong to Solomonson C1 group. They were made between 200 and the 270’s AD. We have to count with the importation of the products of the C1 -C2 groups of the African Red Slip Wares of applied decoration to the south-eastern region of the Pannonian limes.
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Smartphones allow users to access social networking sites (SNSs) whenever and wherever they want. Such easy availability and accessibility may increase their vulnerability to addiction. Based on the social cognitive theory (SCT), we examined the impacts of outcome expectancies, self-efficacy, and impulsivity on young Chinese smartphone users’ addictive tendencies toward SNSs. Methods: Two hundred seventy-seven Macau young smartphone users (116 males and 161 females; mean age = 26.62) filled out an online Chinese questionnaire concerning their usage of social networking sites via smartphones, addiction tendencies toward SNSs, impulsivity trait, outcome expectancies toward the use, and Internet self-efficacy. Results: The findings revealed that those who spent more time on SNSs also reported higher addictive tendencies. Addictive tendencies were positively correlated with both outcome expectancies and impulsivity, but negatively associated with Internet self-efficacy. These three psychological variables explained 23% of the variance in addictive tendencies. Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that, compared to demographics, psychological factors provide a better account for addictive tendencies towards SNSs among Chinese smartphone users in Macau. The three psychological risk factors were low Internet self-efficacy, favorable outcome expectancies, and high impulsivity trait. Educational campaigns with screening procedures for high-risk groups are recommended for effective prevention and treatment.
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