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This paper problematizes the phenomenon of popular literature with reference to the recipients of popular literature. Our initial thesis is that what is considered as popular is not contained in the text itself, but in the manner the text is approached.
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The text narrates the story of the printed edition of Andrzej Słowaczyński’s vaudeville Chłopiec studukatowy, which was the first to include the golden duck legend. It reconstructs the cultural and topographical context of the 1830 performance in Teatr Rozamitości in Warsaw (Variety Theater), and traces its phonological paradoxes. The vaudeville parodied Ferdinand Raimund’s Chłop milionowy, and today it remains a valuable testimony of both urban and regional folklore. Additionally, it exposes the social-spatial perceptions of the 19th-century Varsovians. Paradoxically, Chłopiec studukatowy owes its resulting commercial success to the literary, albeit cursory interpretations of the legend which followed.
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The main argument of the article tends towards the assumption that the visual sphere of culture is one of the most signi cant features of human agency and it is closely connected to the process of constructing particular worldviews. The scienti c discourse that follows the issue of visuality has therefore a long history of transitions and paradigm shifts, just like the cultural discourse in general. Cultural anthropology developed with the passing time also its own way of seeing things, especially when it comes to the conceptualization if cultural otherness. Visual anthropology, understood as an independent anthropological eld of study, gained with time much recognition amongst other social sciences, being part of a much broader visual turn in the social sciences. What is signi cant the contemporary image discourse shifts its momentum towards the „native’s point of view”, i.e. it recaptures the reality in terms of subjective and culturally conditioned ways of percepting the world.
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It is well known that Gravettian hunters were the best reindeer hunters, while the Epigravettian and Mesolithic hunters especially hunted the red deer. The first explanation consists in the environmental conditions, almost identical in the various regions of Europe, during the periods when these communities lived; archeological excavations undertaken in their establishments allowed determining of several realities: the modalities of locating the habitats (even the habitations); the predilection for the geographic geomorphological areas; the climate micro-episodes (for instance, the periglacial climate for several geographical micro-regions); the usage of hard materials of animal origin – reindeer and red-deer antlers – as supports for implements, weapons, body ornamental items or art objects, even the usage of horns in the field of the funeral rites, etc. The existence of regional variations was noticed: forinstance, in its artistic representations, etc., which are more numerous, Atlantic Europe being dominated by reindeer hunting. In this context, it appears that the red deer is an animal to which a very rich symbolism is attached, so being also the case of the bison or ofthe reindeer in other geographic regions and prehistoric cultures. Therefore, a special attention is paid to the paleozoological finds in the Gravettian and Epipaleolithic – Mesolithic habitat levels, which are also identified throughout the East-Carpathian territory and the Russian Plain. We shall present such finds from Mitoc-Malu Galben and also in other important sites of the considered geographic area, due to their multifunctional character (existence of species as environmental elements, their usage as food, or the usage of the skins and carcasses in constructions, of bonesand horns for artistic creations or in order to arrange cult-related structures). The East-Carpathian territory of Romania, situated between the Eastern Carpathians and the Prut, then the Dniestr, to which the Romanian Plain is added (between the Danube and the Southern Carpathians), is very well studied from the archeological point of view. There were discovered several sites with levels of the Gravettian habitat and belonging to the Epigravettian (of Mediterranean aspect) and to the Mesolithic, with a rich and varied archeological material. Among the fauna remains, the category belonging to the reindeer (Gravettian) and the red deer (Epigravettian-Mesolithic) is the one which dominates statistically. The human communities used the reindeer and the red deer not only for food, as they also used horns for making implements and weapons and as supports forart objects
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In the Roman classical time, as well as during the Christian period, the very young age of marriageable girls indicates that their passage from childhood to adulthood was somewhat enforced. Our study aims to observe and comment on several aspects regarding the de jure and de facto marriageable age and consequently the age of passage from childhood to adulthood between the 1stand the 6th centuries AD in the area corresponding to the late Roman province Scythia Minor. The importance of marriage and childbearing in the Roman world is revealed, also, by the sources that refer to the premature death of young people, before their marriage. Analyzing the symbolic meaning of funeral inventory in graves of marriageable girls is another objective of this study. The clothing, the jewels and the rest of the funeral inventory, together with the specific rituals might reveal unmarried status of the deceased young woman, but also her nulliparial status and consequently her symbolic “childhood”.
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Anthropological-pedagogical reflection is an integral part of Stefan Swieżawski's philosophical research. Pedagogical duties, according to Swieżawski, are an inalienable part of the tasks of philosophy practiced in the trend of metaphysical realism, a philosophy intended to provide an overall consideration and affirmation of human existence. According to Swieżawski, philosophy as paideia is an inalienable element of education and self-education, because human development requires philosophical (intellectual, contemplative) reflection on reality. Within Swieżawski's thought, the relationships between philosophy, religious experience and the image of the world, evoke the problem of the same relations within pedagogy, and guide discussions on the relationship between pedagogy and religion, as well as on Christian or Catholic inspiration within education.
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Opening orphanages, E. Bojanowski created and perfected his pedagogical concept of education. He shaped its philosophical base in terms of realism, which is only possible in a context that is consistent with a factual reading of the world in which people and things exist. He based his thinking on philosophical anthropology, the Bible, and the Church's teachings, which indicated that man is a unity of body and soul, a person, a child of God. This integral and realistic conception of man resulted in the need for his integral development and education. Bojanowski created a system of early education that takes into account the achievements, in thought and practice, of the Church in education, culture, history and tradition, as well as the specificity of the natural environment, the overall factors influencing the child's upbringing and the organization of institutions. Fidelity to accepted assumptions still ensures the continuation and implementation of adaptive changes while maintaining the identity of the concept and the reconstruction of his integral pedagogy in relation to realistic Thomistic philosophy.
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The present discussion has emerged as a response to a book review – written and published by A. A. Rusu – which refers to a monograph in which its authors (Lia Bătrîna and Adrian Bătrîna) showcase the results of the archaeological research conducted in Rădăuţi, at the church of Saint Nicholas (Sfântul Nicolae), a necropolis of the first Moldavian princes. By virtue of the principle “audiatur et altera pars”, we intend to respond to Mr. Rusu’s criticism and observations, since we find them to be – almost exclusively – unfounded.
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The article examines the main features of the “New Historical Demography” which developed in Russia during the 1990s. The authors analyze factors and trends in social science and the humanities that have influenced the formation of this new research strand and review the main problem issues related to its definition, status and methodology, as well as its impact on alterations in the primary source base, methods and tools of historical demographic inquiry. Modern Russian centers involved in “new historical demographic” research are presented in the European comparative perspective. The authors conclude that historical demography has become a driving force behind introducing computer technologies in historical research. The article notes certain successes of “New Historical Demography” in Russia, but emphasizes the need to shift from “extensive” to “intensive” development, and suggests integration with modern European historical demographic programs and the transition from local to pan-Russian databases as means to achieve this.
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The article presents a comparative evaluation of quantitative evidence of the living conditions in the Vodlozero region in northern Russia collected in five time periods (1791, 1873, 1905, 1926, 1933) on the basis of the General Land Survey (Generalnoe Mezhevanie of Olonets Gubernia – GMOG), reintroduced into historical research practice, and a thorough examination of the lists of known settlements. Based on the information about the number of households and the dynamics of their habitability over time, as well as on the data pertaining to economic activities of the region’s inhabitants, the author shows the increase of regional potential for social and demographic development from the end of the 18th century until the first third of the 20th century, which enabled the local peasant community to survive through the political upheavals of the first quarter of the 20th century. By showing how the established traditional economic and social practices had evolved over centuries and ensured the sustainability of human and economic resources specific to the natural landscape of the Vodlozero area, the paper offers a retrospective reconstruction of the specifics of the extent of human intervention with nature, as well as social consequences of this process in the long run.
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The article attempts to compare social structures of Russian provincial gubernial urban centers in Siberia (Tobolsk) and in the Central Black Earth Region (Tambov) in the watershed period for the Russian Empire at the turn of the 20th century. The authors have analyzed the occupational, class and social composition of Tobolsk and Tambov. Age, gender and social characteristics of occupational and urban class groups, as well as composition and specific weight of the elite, middle layers and bottom layers of the gubernial centers have been studied. The study of two gubernial cities of the Russian Empire embedded in different historical environments permits the authors to single out general and specific features of the processes of social change related to urbanization and modernization.
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Communist ideology transformed the size, functions, structure and legal foundations of the family in Soviet Russia. There were objective and subjective factors which brought about active reforms of the family in the 1920s: the objective factors involved the modernization processes in the society, while the subjective ones were conscious attempts to construct the family institution in accordance with the idealized concept of the future society. The 1920s family reform generated multiple family types, shaped in particular by ideological concepts and beliefs. This paper analyzes the data from a unique source, the All-Russia Communist Party Census of 1922, which provides information about the number of people and the ratio of workers to dependents in Party members’ families. Party members constituted the social group which was the most susceptible to ideology, which renders their family structure particularly interesting. These data also reflect the general trends in the early Soviet society and their scale. We put a special emphasis on the analysis of new family forms such as communal family, ‘revolutionary’ family, and so on.
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Based on a variety of statistical sources the article explores demographic structure and origins of migrants in the post-WWII Soviet Union, using examples of the North Caucasus and the Urals. Next to post-war general population censuses of 1959, 1970, and 1979, the research utilizes unique yearly reports of the local administration concerned with internal migration in the two areas under study. While general characteristics of the migration streams in those areas largely corroborate observations of an earlier research on the subject, the Author also unravels substantial inter-regional differences which so far have gone largely unnoticed. These differences were to a large extent path-dependent and related to peculiarities of the settlement patterns, and overall developmental differences between the regions. Given these divergences, the Author argues, a methodological reflection on the accuracy of crude comparisons of the migration streams in the regions under study seems inevitable.
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Human dignity as the “value of value” occurs in the centre of interests of humanities and the remaining sciences towards anthropological leaning. The term “human dignity” is ambiguous. And except for that fact, “the dignity rhetoric,” which is undertaken quite often, causes the inflation of that notion. The complex issue of a person’s dignity and the attempts of questioning it over and over, indicate the need of methodological consideration over the discussed view and emphasizing its meaning for the scientific theory and practice, including pedagogical one. The following problematical fields: the term and notion (meaning) of dignity, the dignity definition, the types of dignity, the ways of authorized thesis about the human dignity and the functions of “the human dignity” term are presented in the article. The enumerated implications concerning the statement that a human possesses the dignity close the entire analysis.
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The motives behind the choice of this study could be presented in the following way: 1. Topic is significant and of present interest for our society, particularly for its thinking part. 2. Topic is a problem of the hour and debatable. 3. There is a small amount of publications abroad and at home. 4. I have been working for a long period of time on the issues of personality, its behavior, the freedom of its choice and the constraints that limit it. My researcher’s interest, as well as its realization in this study, is focused on the issue of the freedom of personality. In order to develop the problem for the individual freedom, it was necessary to “pass“ through elaboration of the issues of personality, its behaviour and the constraints it experienced, which stem from the society. All this is in the context of the problem for the freedom of the personality. Writing this study, I have used the deductive approach. In my opinion it is suitable and gives good results. The topic is developed mainly from a psychological and partly from a sociological point of view. I consider this combination to be justified and successful. The main thesis in the study is: “Personality might be free, that it must be free, but it is not free“. The way I have elaborated on my reasoning is not impossibly optimistic, but it is not desperately pessimistic, either. The way I have elaborated on my reasoning, analysis and findings is realistic. At the end of the study it is pointed out that the only alternative to societal constraints on personality is establishing and maintaining direct democracy!
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The study proposes an application of one of the most generative approaches in current economic sociology – social network analysis, to Bulgarian criminal structures. The increasing levels of deviance and crime are particularly actual global issues in the XXI century.This process is even more relevant for countries like Bulgaria, where crime, especially organized crime, has been a key problem for the last 25 years. The text emphasizes the importance of knowing the structure and the way the crime groups function for increasing the effectiveness of combating crime. Based on the social network analysis of three cases of Bulgarian criminal structures, some opportunities to improve the policies for combating criminal networks in Bulgaria are displayed.
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The study examines international migrations as a network theory object. The re¬search field spreads through the question: What is the analytical potential of network theories in migration? What are the theoretical concepts, key for migrations proceses and research? The main thesis of this study is limited to the statement that today net¬work theories are the most appropriate analytical approach to migration with episte¬mological potential to improve integration through social capital. Network theories allow us to see migration not only through individual decisions of migrating but as a general result – product of interpersonal, interactions, embed¬ded in the economic and political environment; reveals the essence of contemporary migration as a „self-sustaining“; balanced micro and meso level analysis – there is room for a whole range of subjects: family, friends, employers. Reaching also through macro level: remittances, information flow and migration policies. Migrations are placed on a continuum that can be analyzed through the social capital of the participants in the migration networks. An attempt was made to present the possibilities for the integration process of social immigrant capital.The analysis is supported by data from: an empirical study on the topic „Social networks and so¬cial capital of immigrants in Bulgaria“ conducted within the project financed by the Research Activity of University of National and World Economy in 2014, publica¬tions of the National Bank of Bulgaria; World Bank researches, data from Eurostat and some basic parameters of the European migration policy, best practices and stra¬tegic documents.
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This research compares the production of hay in three historical European agroecological systems: in northern Romania, central Sweden and eastern central France. We analyse hay production in relation to the entire production system, the local natural conditions, and the variety of ways by which hay production was transformed over time. We found broad commonalities, but also discovered significant differences in each of three historical trajectories. Introduction of fodder crops, crop rotations and mechanization are important drivers of changes in all three areas, although the timing, sequence and causation vary from place to place. There are significant differences in the organization of farm labour, in the role of beef and dairy production, the role of political reforms and the climatic constraints of outdoor grazing which affected the transformation of fodder production. This paper highlights the potential of an integrated, interdisciplinary approach for better understanding the complex interaction of people, their social and economic contexts, and their environment.
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