Българо-полска конференция по проблемите на християнството и фолклора в съвременността
Scientific Life; Scholarly Conference
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Scientific Life; Scholarly Conference
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The article follows the historical and the contemporary condition of the Bulgarian immigrant community in Adelaide – the capital of the Australian state South Australia. The general idea is that the settlement of the different waves of Bulgarians who have chosen this part of Australia as their second fatherland is due to the similarity of the climate and sustenance with the ones in their native places in Bulgaria. The author also shares her observations of the link which exists between the immigrants and the forms of sustenance inherited and learned at home – gardening in particular, which has been for years on end not just their sustenance, but also the center of their personal and social life and a marker of their place in the new multicultural society situated on thousands of kilometers from their initial homes in Bulgaria.
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The Velyanov house is located in the southwest, not far from the church “The Holy Trinity”, in the ancient neighborhood, in the small, beautiful town Bansko, which more precisely is located in the center of the town. From all the standard and classical descriptions and from its architecture, the house is classified like a typical house from this part of Bulgaria, as a typical house from the Pirin district from the XVIII century. Since the year 1967 the building and its unique mural paintings are announced to be a real monument with National importance.Through the centuries there were numerous and important architectural changes in the house. The authors of the study Nina Zlateva and Iliya Borisov think that in the beginning, The Velyanov house used to be a medieval house with rectangular shape and in its structure there is a two-chamber tomb. There is a proof about the existence of this tomb in the southeastern facade of the Velyanov House, over the frescoes, where there is a built-in stone block that happily survived through the years and it has a carved Runic text all over it. This is not only a proof but also an ancient way to protect the people who used to live in the house.
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The text analyses the entanglements between the commemorative and the festive aspects of the events organized as anniversaries of the so called “Revival Process” (the forced assimilation of Bulgarian Turks in mid- to late 1980s) and the protests against it. Following the example of the Day of Dzhebel, the study tracks the various forms of remembering the past. On the one hand, it is the “top-down”constructed official memory of the traumatic events presented in the well-established discourses and cultural practices of the commemoration, while on the other hand is the recollection of the shared everyday life that transforms the event into a fest, reviving the memory of the lost social relations in the community.
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In this article I present the potential of the Wild Flower Festival in the area of the villages of the upper bank of the Arda River as a new type of ‘production’ and an alternative non-agricultural way for development in the rural context. The article follows the history and mission of the festival in its development, the specialized events and the interactions between the main social actors – external NGO specialists and local stakeholders. It reflects the impact of the festival on the local communities through the mobilization of knowledge and experience, the appreciation of local cultural specifics, targeted actions for preservation of the natural and cultural wealth of the Rhodope Mountains. The article explores how local natural and cultural resources are being used as a new type of production in rural areas.
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The paper examines the process of transformation of plant species into emblems that play an important role in the construction of local identity and the specific taste of place. By comparing the case of Raduil and Smilyan beans, the authors seek answers to the questions: how a plant crop that has not been the subject of intense cultivation and extensive commercialization becomes a value and is permanently associated with the name of a settlement (area), how this happens in time, what are the main social actors in the process, which are the economic and socio-cultural preconditions, how the valorisation of certain local plant resources is expressed in cultural forms and can be an incentive for activating local communities and economic revival of the studied areas. The bio-cultural dimensions of beans in Smilyan and Raduil and the process of evaluation of these food plants are the main threads in the study.
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The Roman Mithraism is an Occidental variant of the cult of the ancient Iranian deity Mithra. The article explores the Iranian origin of some of the main mythological motives found in this Mystery religion and their interpretation through the prism of the Neo-Pythagoreanism and Neo-Platonism in the Late Antique Rome. A hypothesis is formulated about the fundamental significance of the concept of the logos or ratio in the context of the numerological and musical-astronomical allegories of the cult, derived from the Chaldean-Persian teachings and the science of ancient Sumer, permitting to reconstruct yet unsuspected aspects of its esoteric doctrine.
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From an anthropological perspective, the world of childhood is a combination of the world of children as well as the world of adults and it includes a process of cultural learning, which does not end with childhood. The present article seeks to answer the question where and under what conditions these processes take place in the light of the various spaces and their uses during holidays. Using visual narratives, the article presents case studies from the Roma neighborhood in the village of Belozem,Plovdiv District, and a micro neighborhood in the residential district of Stolipinovoin the city of Plovdiv.
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The focus of the article is on the recent past – the era of socialism, and especially on the goods for mass consumption. In spite of the fact that the objects are not ideologically burdened, their nowadays’ fate is very interesting – they are one of the main transmitters of the feeling of nostalgia about a simpler and better life in the past. No more part of people’s style of living, they are nevertheless rich in personal memories. Such presence provokes a lot of reminiscences and imaginations about slow and safe but already irrevocably lost life. Exploiting nostalgic feelings among big groups in Bulgarian society, nowadays market actors create special places full of objects of the recent past. Two of them – Raketa restaurant and Com.bar in the centre of the city of Sofia are very representative places for entertainment. This is the reason they to be on the focus of the anthropological fieldwork.
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The article is an attempt to compare the customary law system of inheritance in the Bulgarian rural traditional society with that of France. A parallel is made with the customary law system of the Berbers in Morocco as well. The significant difference between the Bulgarian and the French customary law systems of inheritance is that the first one is uniform as a whole, while in the second case is characterized by the existence of different types of customary law systems of inheritance in various regions of the country.Another important benchmark for the comparative analysis is the fact that according to the Bulgarian customary law system of inheritance only the sons have the right to inherit the estate of the deceased. It is pointed out that this peculiarity of the system of inheritance is also characteristic of some areas in France and the reasons for this are discussed. The principle of inheritance in question is also characteristic of the customary law of the Moroccan Berbers – local, pre-Arabic population of Morocco. In support of this, some information is given about their customary law of inheritance.
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The aim of the current paper is to discuss medicine as a unity of scientific knowledge, acquired skills, and attitude based on moral responsibility. Following an analysis of the terms ‘science’ and ‘art’, it is suggested that neither of them singlehandedly satisfies the requirements of contemporary medicine and those of medical practitioners. As a science, its focus is rather on the illness itself than on the patient and their needs and preferences. As an art, it prioritises the patients and their individual needs but risks undermining the knowledge and experience of the medical professional. The most beneficial option is a symbiosis between science and art. A dialogue between them would increase the amount of trust in the medical profession as a combination of scientific knowledge and technical skills.
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The paper seeks to investigate some of the anthropological consequences of the First World War, which was not simply just another but the first total war. It was without a clear dividing line between the front and the rear; it was with long duration, involving the mobilization of millions of people, most of whom not specialized in conducting military actions. In this perspective, the paper analyses some specific modes of the interpenetrations of peacetime’ attitudes and frontline’ experiences. Special attention is paid to the rearrangement of the human sensorium of the soldiers in the trenches of the First World War. Another subject is the correspondence between soldiers and their families in the rear. The letters contain both the experience from the front and the peacetime attitudes of the soldiers. Their language is shaped by the tension between the two worlds – of the war and of the peace.
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Contemporary cognition theory claims to be a separate branch, separate from philosophy. Would that mean that the other major pillar ontology would also become independent? What will be left of the philosophical body in that case? This, however, will not be a topic to be dealt with here, but only with this side of epistemology that is relevant to anthropology and the social sciences. The context of anthropology will give another status of knowledge theory to the human world, which is socially constructed. The problem of reality and truth will be related to what people believe and adhere to.
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Experiencing loss and grief after a failed attempt at assisted reproduction leads to serious emotional repercussions for the mother and the couple as a whole. To pinpoint the philosophical-existential fears of the mother “that wasn’t” is of great importance, for it allows deliberate work to be done to help the present loss reaction. The serious medico-psychosocial problem present deserves to be examined due to the wide philosophical-ethical resonances it leads to. In some cases the reaction to loss can lead to a rejection of further tries, to “unlocking” depression and other mental illnesses. The authors present their own study involving 29 women aged 28 – 43, evaluated with two standardized self assessment psychological questionnaires for depression and anxiety, an interview and a survey. Based on the provided result data the patients most often had difficulties overcoming their loss, due to being situated in the phases of Anger and Depression, as based on the Stages of Grief, and report symptoms of generalized stress, depression and anxiety. Patients remain certain in the need for individual and group psychosocial work to overcome the loss.
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