Culture as a very complex phenomenon of multiple meanings is an integral part of the educational reality. In this article we highlight the different contexts of culture and education and their relationship. We analyse culture as a part of the learning environment and one of the external determinants influencing the educational process. Given the anthropological background of culture and education we raise the question of "educated man" and the need to educate.
The starting point of the authoress' considerations is the thesis that cultural heritage performs a particular role in national identification, particularly in this day and age. It seems from her observations that most of society associates cultural heritage with huge buildings, museum-pieces, and monuments, with tangible objects, whereas in fact it consists of everything that surrounds us, from artefacts to religion, language, literature or music. Memory and its cultivation should also be regarded as a part of cultural heritage, because they provide a basis of every activity and without memory, political, historical or sociological manipulations deprive a nation of identity. The sooner we realise what cultural inheritance is, what the identity is, replying to such questions as: 'Who am I', and 'How do I differ from everybody else?', the sooner we will present ourselves to the world as a nation deeply rooted in history and culture. Differences among theorists who tackle the subject of cultural inheritance in the age of globalisation are outlined. Some regard it as being focused on 'the protection of folklore, own tradition, language or dialect'. There are also those for whom it carries the hope for both modernisation and the overtaking the most developed countries by implementing Western culture templates as symbols of advance or emancipation. One thing is certain, however, this process has not erased the symbols of cultural heritage but rather has consolidated it. States, regions, and cities are able to cultivate to perfection cultural heritage and tradition without rejecting modernism and innovation while they remain open to the world. So, instead of becoming indignant at globalisation, we should draw on, and assimilate those experiences, which could most effectively influence the way our heritage is protected. This process, however, should not be regarded as a threat, but rather as a means of understanding, what the heritage, culture and tradition really mean to the nation.
The article discusses funerary customs characteristics of Ragusa in the late Middle Ages on the basis of funeral descriptions included in the book entitled Situs aedificiorum, politiae et laudabilium consuetudinum inclitae civitatis Ragusi. The text was written at the turn of the 1440s by Philip de Diversis, born in Lucca and teaching in Ragusa. It represents the late-mediaeval genre of laudes civitatum, aimed at praising the town. It is addressed to Ragusa nobles, members of the Great Council. It is divided into four parts, devoted to: the convenient location of the town, its important edifices, both sacred and secular, the typology and functions of the town’s offices and armed forces, and a wide presentation of the town’s customs, both religious and secular, including funeral ceremonies. Diversis focuses on describing ceremonies connected with the death of patricians. Characteristic features of Ragusan funerals were: a procession through the streets of the town, a service in the cathedral, an important element of which was a valediction praising the deceased person, and a several-days-long feast attended by the members of the social class of the deceased. Diversis notes the special role of women in local funerals, describing patrician women walking in corteges and the loud laments of hired mourners. After the funeral and the service the women of the deceased person’s family mourned and feasted in their honour in seclusion for many days. The men, on the other hand, gathered to feast in the late person’s house and stayed there for three days. All the rituals described by Diversis reflect the intention the cultivate the memory of the deceased member of the community; they also highlight the significant and characteristic role of the feast in commemorative practices. The author noted the presence of representatives of the patriciate and of the town council; he also stressed that it was only Ragusa nobles that had a right to be commemorated with a mass in the most important locus sacer of the town. The patriciate was also represented at the funerals of town clerks, which was a way to commemorate and honour those who had served the town and its citizens. The author stressed that the customary ritual was different when the deceased person was a victim of an epidemics. In his description of funeral ceremonies Diversis did not mention the town cemetery; in another place he wrote that town citizens were buried the churches of the Dominican and Franciscan orders. It is certain, however, that those churches could not have been the only burial places in the town. The author disregarded the role of religious fraternities in funeral ceremonies, which was probably aimed at foregrounding the role of the patriciate in those celebrations. The author of the article pays special attention to the description of the funeral of one of Hungarian kings. By organising this ceremony the Ragusa nobles probably wanted to manifest their connections with the majesty of a Christian monarch. During the ceremony they acted as this part of the town community that was responsible for commemorating the dead king.
The paper discusses the title issue of 'the cultural character of great changes in science' in two stages. In the first, preliminary stage, the 15 general theses are introduced, which are, in the opinion of the author of the paper, useful in a description and an explanation of great changes in science. These theses stem from the achievements of many disciplines, such as history of philosophy, history of religious believes, history of ideas, history of science, philosophy of culture, history of culture, cultural anthropology and sociology of culture. In the second stage, the paper analyses several cases of great changes in science from ancient times to nowadays, showing an apparent - thanks to the historical analysis - a close connection between science and other parts of culture, such as technology, art (such as literature), philosophy, religion and theology.
Globalization trends of culture, the idea of multiculturalism, bringing and acceptance of foreign elements into the culture, open coquetry of the "West" with culture and arts of the "East", eclecticism, but also paradoxical what happened to be the fate of modern art after postmodern deconstruction of the meaning (including also the sense of Art) and the reduction of his function to ability to serve in variable updating roles towards individual and society, is 46 years after the release of books Asphyxiating Culture repeatedly bringing me to read and review it. The topic, therefore, is to examine the validity of Dubuffet appeal, its insertion into the broader context of the forms of "dehumanization" of art, but also review of the reference just in the context of relations culture - art. New search respectively the determination of periphery in arts and culture should besides unfinished theme energizing academic debate of last years, if not decades, thus defining theme of Art (it defines itself not only its centre, but also its periphery). It can and it should briefly look at the issue of the institutionalization of art; the relationship of artistic production and its cultural context, which is not transferable; "foucaultian" power of discourse established by culture; extremely interesting affinity of art and advertising; aestheticism of culture; enforcement of discontinuity issues and pluralism as in the thought (philosophy, and culture in general) also within the artistic creation, namely for topics that Dubuffet advises and argumentations plays. Nearly half a century after his call and its final words -"therefore, our artistic production, which is not subjected to a thorough critique of culture and effectively not reveals the futility and absurdity, is not refuge for us" - we need to talk about our accountability.
With the increasing popularity of Facebook, a new social phenomenon connected with its extensive use has appeared: namely, Facebook intrusion. The main aim of the study was to examine the mediating role of loneliness in the relation between friendships and Facebook intrusion. We analysed data from five countries: Poland (N = 399), Slovakia (N = 266), Syria (N = 475), Ecuador (N = 327), and Malaysia (N = 241). The total sample consisted of 1731 participants who had Facebook accounts; 61% of the participants were women. We administered the Facebook Intrusion Scale, the Loneliness Scale, and the Friendship Scale. The results indicated differences in the role of loneliness and friendship in Facebook intrusion, depending on the country. Among young Polish people, friendship decreases loneliness and loneliness decreases Facebook intrusion. Whereas among Ecuadorians friendship decreases loneliness, while loneliness increases Facebook intrusion.
History teaches that the Church needs art and that art has its staunchest ally in the Church. Their mutual relationship is based on a basic tenet of faith, which holds that the eternal word of God became flesh, thus giving the highest form of religious approval to the realm of the visible. This is the belief which informs the current 'rediscovery' of painting in religion; in this context, we must ask ourselves how painting could be re-introduced into the Christian experience. With that issue in mind, the present article argues the need for a new synthesis of word and image, a change in the perspective on art, which would take account of man's participation in the mystery of creation, and the inclusion of art in the spiritual experience of individual Christians, especially in prayer and the community of the faithful. The article also points to possible dangers, especially the risk that the value of church art will be reduced to the mere status of a cultural asset.
The systematic and interdisciplinary study of relations between technology and culture is at the core of one project at the Karlsruher Institute of Technology (KIT). This text introduces the institutional background of this project as well as some early activities and first results. After that it focuses on the theoretical foundations for the concepts of technology and culture being used in this project. Based on these thoughts the correlation between technology and culture is being illustrated and some examples of its interdependencies are given. Finally some concluding theses are presented.
Victor Erofeev is one of the main Russian post-modernists, who applies to culture, religion, intelligence and Russia in his works. Knowing that a modern human moulded by the Internet and television is going to be the audience of his prose, Victor Erofeev tries to shock the reader. To do that he uses vulgar and physiological stylistics. The subject matter of the body and physiology, so typical of post-modernist anthropology, allows the writer to place his characters in the new but far from Russian reality. Erofeev, going into literary discourse with Fyodor Dostoevsky, shows deformed and “raped” human values, which were underestimated in the time of communism. Erofeevis worries if the present days will change this pessimistic process.
The outcome of the project entitled Man in Moravia is a four-volume social history of Moravia in the period between the end of the 18th century and the end of the 20th century. The main aim of the project focusing on important personalities and the so-called socio-professional characters is to create an overview of Moravian social history. The secondary aims are to incite a discussion about social history among the members of the scholarly community and to invite researchers who excel in the issues of local provenience. The project included 8 editors with different specializations and 60 experts from universities, Academy of Science and archives. The project is part of the Centre for Studies in Central European History: Sources, Countries, Culture which has been co-ordinated by Jiri Malir at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University since 2005.
Tourism is considered to be the strongest sector of the economy in the world. In regional development it serves as a tool of economic, social, environmental and cultural increase. Today tourism becomes not only an economic system but also a cultural phenomenon. Tourism as a way of life or as a product of human plays an important role in cultural science, specifically in culturology. The article bears a complex view on the issue of the relationship between tourism and culture in which the bilateral effect is stressed. While the impact of culture in tourism is regarded as positive, even further fundamental for tourism realisation, the opinion of a tourism impact on culture are different. On one hand tourism is considered to be a starter of globalisation and other negative cultural values. On other hand positive effects as an increase of cultural identity and conservation of cultural heritage is emphasized. In article the main view is dedicated to balance between cultural and economic opinions where positive effects are spread to both areas.
The article discusses the topic of culture and its interrelation with social policy. Basing on important contributions of Baldock, van Oorschot and Pfau-Effinger, it attempts to present the significance of a wide cultural context for the welfare state and at the same time a relative negligence of this cultural context in academic social policy. The main part of the article is the presentation of the contextualization of the above mentioned issues as proposed by Birgit Pfau-Effinger who outlined the concepts of welfare culture and welfare arrangements. The twofold character of culture-welfare state interrelation seems to be a very intriguing and promising field of study, also in a comparative perspective.
The author restricts herself to the selected and most significant spring rites which are still practised in some regions of Poland (traditional drowning/burning of a straw dummy, parading with a small decorated tree, having a wash in river, functions of the palm and egg etc.). She describes the process of transformation in traditional spring rites in Poland on the basis of selected example, which is still alive in the south – eastern Poland as well as in Cieszyn Silesia and Opole Silesia.
The article is about searching for cultural authenticity of the Moroccan society – “the country of setting sun” – in the perspective of booming tourism. The first part of the article presents a short characteristic of some chosen aspects of the unusually colorful Moroccan culture. Then, the most important reasons for the disappearance of the genuine face of the country, seized by tourist industry and striving for better future as well as for recognition on the world market, are shown. The attempt to adopt the rules imposed by “the modern times momentum” is often connected with some form of sacrifice as well as the loss of essence of identity and individuality. The next part of the article touches the issue of ethics in tourism. Certain examples help to picture the ethical attitudes visible in the relations between Moroccans and the arriving tourists. Next, the article presents the phenomenon of folclorization and the cultural “show” for tourists, which results from the cultural authenticity disappearance. In the last part of the article, the analysis of a survey carried out among Moroccans is presented. The survey studies the degree of tradition and identity disappearance, as well as the inhabitants’ attitude towards the booming tourism.
The article deals with the topic of institutional structure of the generic culture in the context of contemporary discourse among social sciences. The author reflects selected institutional models of culture (Lawless, Gažová), the general nature of man-made institutions as presented in cultural studies, pointing at the widening lag between ideal and real culture as a result of postmodern tensions in value sphere.
The present paper examines the relative influence of religion and nation on conceptions of virtues. More specifically the concept of wisdom was chosen, because it has been considered a crucial human strength across millennia and across nations. Humanities and social sciences students (N = 941) from five nations that have a predominant religion participated in the study. The nations were Ecuador (predominantly Christian), India (predominantly Hindu), and the predominantly Muslim countries Indonesia, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In India also a group of Christian and in Indonesia a group of Hindu students participated. Respondents indicated their agreement with different statements about what constitutes wisdom. Factor analysis yielded three interpretable factors on the basis of which three scales were constructed referring to different conceptions of wisdom: serenity reflecting emotional and material detachment, determination referring to perseverance and self-reflection, and altruism referring to the absence of egoistic motives. Analyses of variance and regression analyses showed that the influence of cross-national differences exceeds by far the influence of religion on the conceptions of wisdom. The implications of the findings for the often mentioned clash of religions are discussed. Currently, the influence of religion on the values of immigrants may be overemphasized and other important characteristics may be underestimated.
The paper focuses on the scientific research of prof. PhDr. Jozef Ružička, DrSc., who uncovered grammatical aspects of the Slovak to foreign students in his presentations at the Summer School of Slovak Language and Culture Studia Academica Slovaca. In his lectures, he helped participants to see Slovak as confident competitive Central European language which is able to respond to the dynamic changes resulting from the communication needs of the language users. Taking into account the long-term scientific research of Jozef Ružička, the author interprets the contribution of his lectures which were published in anthologies named Studia Academica Slovaca between 1965 and 1979.
Slovak – Hungarian contact zone is historically and culturally specific area showing features of cultural coexistence in various spheres (language, agriculture, building, customs and rituals) rooted in layers of common history, regional/geographical characteristic and the way of life. The argument is based on an analysis of the secondary sources of both Slovak and Hungarian ethnology, history, linguistics and other social science and humanities. Differences found between the cultural phenomena of the two contacting ethnic areas are due to taking over phenomena from the neighbouring culture in the certain stage of its development and also due to accommodation of the phenomena to the various ranges of circumstances.
Since their beginning Universities have played an important, often decisive role in the development of Europe as a cultural community of various peoples and nations. In the present circumstances, ever more troubling, they cannot cease to be responsible for the way Europe exists, and the direction it is going. All those who belong to universitas magistrorum et scholarium have a funda¬mental duty to discern the signs of the present times, to distinguish and sepa¬rate good from bad, and above all to search for truth - the integral truth about man in the perspective of his natural and supernatural dimensions. Thus man is to become the primary way for the university. The modern debate about man is in fact the debate about the essentials of culture which today is often marked by ambivalent and contrasting meanings. Hence, this universal debate must not be neglected by the university. On the contrary, the university should make it its priority in all its educational and scientific activities. Otherwise, it would deny its primary duty and proper identity.
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