Cultural Entities Research Articles

Identifying Local Learning Communities During the Terminal Palaeolithic in the Southern Levant: Multi-scale 3-D Analysis of Flint Cores

A methodology for identifying prehistoric local learning communities is proposed. We wish to test possible relationships among communities based on continuity and variability in lithic reduction sequence technological traits with different visibility and malleability. Quantitative features reflecting different technological traits are measured on 3-D models of flint cores in different scales: the ratio between core thickness and reduction surface width, the angle between subsequent bands of production blank scars to the relative striking platform, and the average curvature of the ridge between each blank scar striking platform pair. Continuity and variability in these features are used to establish the relations among lithic assemblages on different hierarchical levels: local learning communities and geographically widespread cultural lineages. The Late Upper Palaeolithic and the Epipalaeolithic of the Southern Levant (ca. 27,000–15,000 cal BP) provide an opportunity to test our method. A progressive increase in territoriality is hypothesized throughout this timespan, yet the precise timing and modes of this phenomenon need to be defined. The present study analyzes six core assemblages attributed to different cultural entities, representing chronologically separated occupations of the Ein Gev area and the coastal Sharon Plain. Continuity in technological traits between the Atlitian (ca. 27,000–26,000 cal BP) and Nizzanan (ca. 20,000–18,500 cal BP) occupations of the Ein Gev area suggests that the same learning community repeatedly settled there during a long time span. Two geographically separate learning communities were defined in the study areas within the Kebaran cultural entity (ca. 24,000–18,000 cal BP); the group occupying the Ein Gev area possibly continued to settle there during the Geometric Kebaran (ca. 18,000–15,000 cal BP). Continuity in more conservative traits of the reduction sequence allows to tie these two communities to the same cultural lineage. The ability to track prehistoric learning communities based on quantitative features helps increase the objectivity and the resolution in the reconstruction of past cultural dynamics.

Residents’ Perception of a Collaborative Approach with Artists in Culture-Led Urban Regeneration: A Case Study of the Changdong Art Village in Changwon City in Korea

This study asserts that the higher the degree of artists’ and residents’ participation in a culture-led renewal project, the higher the level of residents’ satisfaction. Engaging artist groups and introducing cultural programs can facilitate building a collaborative network between artists and residents. This paper adopts an experimental study method and defines the experimental and control groups as follows: the experimental group (Changwon city) has relatively high artist participation, and the control group (Sacheon, Gimhae, Miryang cities) have relatively low artist involvement. Multiple regression analysis was conducted utilizing 192 valid survey data in R studio software. The significant variables were compared between the experimental group (Model 1) and the control group (Model 2). As a result, the relative effects of “1. experience (or amount) of residents’ participation in urban renewal programs”, “2. reflection of residents’ opinions”, and “3. neighborly trust” on “residents’ satisfaction with urban regeneration projects and expected outcomes” was shown to be greater in the experimental group. The result implies that the involvement of cultural entities and the operation of arts programs increase residents’ will to participate in renewal projects and to build neighborly trust. Further, collection and reflection of residents’ opinions about the renewal works were more smoothly completed when mediated by artist participation and using cultural content.

The Kokel of Southern Siberia: New data on a post-Xiongnu material culture.

From the end of the Xiongnu Empire to the establishment of the first Turkic Khaganate, the territory of Southern Siberia sees the emergence of distinctive local material cultures. The Kokel culture is essentially unknown in the international English-language literature even though archaeological sites pertaining to this material culture are among the most common in Tuva (Southern Siberia). This makes them important for the understanding aspects of the sociocultural dynamics following the collapse of the first “steppe empire”. Here we present the results of the study of a Kokel funerary site recently excavated near the Early Iron Age kurgan Tunnug 1 and discuss the data in the context of the available Soviet and Russian literature. The Kokel culture substantially differs from the material culture of the Xiongnu and has to be seen as a largely independent cultural entity of small tribal groups without a pronounced social hierarchy engaging in frequent violent local conflict.

The Peking Opera or the Beijing Opera? An International Usage Frequency Analysis Based on the Corpus of Global Web-based English (GLoWbE)

The regional differences in the frequency of synonym use reflect the social cognition of various speech groups. Both Peking opera and Beijing opera refer to an identical Chinese cultural entity, but they differ considerably in international usage frequency in the GLoWbE where disparity can be manifested among 20 English-speaking communities. Beijing opera enjoys a slightly higher frequency than Peking opera in total, and several Asian and African countries even have no relevant data concerning this art. Besides, we explore some potential reasons for interpreting these phenomena.

A psychological perspective of agency and structure within critical realist theory: a specific application to the construct of self-efficacy

ABSTRACT The discipline of psychology has been under-represented in the critical realist account of the relationship between structure and agency. In this paper a critical realist perspective of educational psychology research focuses on the psychological analysis of the individual and what might be considered as ‘real' and having causal power. Bhaskar's criteria for an entity to be ontologically real are applied to the psychological entity of self-efficacy in the context of a typical piece of classroom teacher-pupil interaction. The role of self-efficacy alongside other psychological, social and cultural entities is presented as a causal mechanism for the generation of Archer’s internal conversation which leads to agency. Self-efficacy is further examined in relation to criteria of ontological depth and emergence. This perspective creates the basis for a consistent ontological framework across educational psychology and that of the social sciences and a sound basis for interdisciplinary research and theory development.

Conducting a Time-Based Media Conservation Assessment and Survey at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

ABSTRACT The emerging field of time-based media (TBM) conservation is actively creating new theory and practice to address the unique needs of these vulnerable artworks and ensure their long-term preservation. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's strategy to establish TBM conservation includes the implementation of a Time-based Media Conservation Assessment and Survey, which sought to identify institutional and collection needs and build consensus and support for TBM conservation internally among staff. In 2018, the Met contracted three consultants to work with staff, completing a conservation assessment and survey of the Museum's TBM collections, spearheaded by the Photograph Conservation Department. It is hoped that this model for conducting an institutional assessment and collection survey, which engaged colleagues across many disciplines, will be useful to other institutions with similar TBM conservation goals. The role of the conservator is rising in administrative structures to a level where they are shaping policy and positively impacting practice throughout museums and other cultural entities. The importance of this shift from behind-the-scenes to an ever more public-facing position is illustrated in this case study, along with its impact on the steps and strategies used to build a TBM conservation program at The Met.

Knowing through feeling: the aesthetic structure of a novel and the iconic experience of reading

Following the strong program in cultural sociology, I propose a “literary turn” to recognize literary texts “as relatively autonomous cultural entities” with their own agency. This article is part of a larger project connecting cultural sociology with the sociology of literature and literary theory to develop a strong program in the sociology of literature. Instead of approaching literary fiction as an object of analysis, sociology and literature can contribute to social knowledge in a symmetrical way, where fiction is not devalued vis-a-vis social scientific inquiry. Just the opposite: recognizing the specificities of literary communication, we can access textures of social life that are only hardly graspable by sociology. A crucial step is to examine how social knowledge comes into existence when reading a fictional text. Embracing the structural aesthetics of Roman Jakobson and Jan Mukařovský, I modify the concept of iconicity to capture the iconic experience of reading through which literature mediates social experience that is iconic of broader social phenomena. I demonstrate my approach by analyzing the Czech novel Bliss was it in Bohemia by Michal Viewegh (Bliss was it in Bohemia, Jantar Publishing, London, 1992). Building on social aesthetics, I discuss implications of my model for sociological theory, textual representation, and sociological explanation in general.

Making Diversity Research Matter for Social Change: New Conversations Beyond the Firm

This paper argues that, to fulfil the ambition to foster equality and social justice, diversity research should move outside the empirical and ideational boundaries of the firm, which have historically limited our knowledge production on diversity and social change. We first look back at 30 years of diversity research, reflecting on how the main theories, concepts and models of diversity are entangled with four root images of the firm – a neutral container, an economic entity, a cultural entity and a space of inequality – which have fundamentally shaped and limited our way of thinking about forms of action to achieve social change. We then present four illustrations of diversity research that broaden our empirical and ideational horizon: the global garments value chain; the gig economy; a public library; and a dance organization. These examples show new re-conceptualizations of diversity and open up possibilities for new conversations and politics of action to make diversity research matter for social change.

Untranslated Javanese Words in Translation of Okky Madasari’s Novel The Years of Voiceless

This article will try to investigate the Javanese words which are left untranslated found in Okky Madasari’s novel that has been translated into English under the title “The Years of Voiceless”. The research is directed to reveal the reasons that motivate the translators not to translate those words. By applying sociolinguistic theory which strongly believes that linguistic performances are influenced by extralinguistic factors, it is found that Javanese words referring to specific cultural entities, such as address terms, religious beliefs, foods and drinks, performing and architectural arts, and politics are left untranslated.

Les occupations gravettiennes de la Grotte Santa Maria di Agnano (Pouilles, Italie) – Zone SMA-Esterno : typo-technologie lithique et archéozoologie

The Gravettian in Apulia constitutes a singular cultural entity in the context of the prehistoric chrono-cultures of Upper Paleolithic in Italy. This situation can particularly be observed in the Gravettian sequence of the Paglicci cave on Mount Gargano, the lithic series of which show an original development. In the very heart of Apulia, until recently, no field for comparison could be found for the time sequence of the Paglicci cave. But the recent discovery of Gravettian occupation in the stratigraphic sequence of the SMA-external area of Santa Maria di Agnano makes it possible to revisit the status of the Paglicci cave, but also to clarify the specific characters of the Gravettian in Apulia. The lithic industry of SU 9-6 of SMA-Esterno is characterized by the presence of many burins on retouched truncation associated with straight backed points, Gravette or Vachons type. This association reminds us of the assemblage of Paglicci layer 21, attributed to Middle Gravettian. C14 datings for both sites match. Finally, at the base of the Gravettian SMA sequence, SU 11 provided large dihedral burins matching those found Paglicci layers 23-22 attributed to ancient Gravettian. The preliminary zooarchaeological study was carried out on a sample of 2007 remains of large mammals. In total, 816 taxinomic and anatomic remains (NRDt) could be identified, i.e. a 40.7% determination rate. The faunic spectrum consists of 10 taxons, among which 4 species of carnivores (leopard, wolf, fox, badger), 5 ungulates (horse, aurochs, ibex, deer and wild boar) and 1 leporid (hare). Ungulates prevail, as far as remains (98.7% of NRDt) or the minimum number of individuals (82.4% of NMI total) are concerned. Taphonomic analyses indicate that bones were not subject to deep post-depositional modifications. Consequences of weathering are visible on 17% of the cortical surfaces. Non-anthropic biological modifications are scarce: 13% of the material were impacted by roots and 0.7% show the results of carnivorous activity. The hare may be the only species, among herbivores, that was accumulated by a carnivore. The analysis of bone fractures and the traces left by the edge of a lithic tool reveal that the bone material was essentially accumulated and modified by human groups. Hunting is clearly aimed at both Horses (Equus caballus) and Aurochs (Bos primigenius), with occasional Red Deer (Cervus elaphus), Wild Boar (Sus s. scrofa) and Ibex (Capra ibex). The individuals represented are mainly sub-adults and mature adults. The human groups living on the site probably got their meat resources from the plain bordering the Adriatic shore and the vast, more or less flat, plateau overlooking the site. According to the skeleton representations in which the stylopod and zeugopod prevailed, after an initial treatment at the slaughter site, the Gravettians carried the most nutritious parts to the camp. The study of human activities indicates extensive processing of carcasses for their meat and extraction of marrow from long bones. Finally, specific research for fat from the cancellous tissue of the epiphyses of both long and short bones is proposed.

Symbols and narratives of Europe: Three tropes

Throughout history, attempts have been made to identify Europe as a geographical, political, social, and cultural entity. Recent efforts to establish key symbols and narratives of Europe have focused on a set of central signifying elements, even if there is a wide and contradictory range of ways to define, structure, and interpret them. An introductory remark on the current debate on the need for renewed European self-reflection paves the way for some conceptual clarifications of my approach to concepts like culture, meaning, identity and mediation. A methodological reflection accompanies this on how to use semiotic tools in cultural studies based on critical hermeneutics. The concept of culture used here is based on the signifying practice of mediating meaning-making, linking imagination to communication in a triangular dynamic between texts, subjects, and contexts. Examples are given from two research projects on a broad and diverse range of European symbols and narratives, illustrating such interpretive research results. European identifications are crystallized and spun around three dominant tropes: supreme universality, resurrection from division, and communicative mobility. Their intricate tensions and interrelations attest to how deeply Europe remains a highly contested and dynamic meaning cluster.

The architect as civil servant: Aviah Hashimshoni’s architecture education and historiography in 1960s Israel

This article analyses two related events in 1960s Israeli architectural culture: first, the curricular revision at the Technion Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning under the deanship of Aviah Hashimshoni that promoted a comprehensive planning approach; and second, Hashimshoni’s 1963 essay ‘Architecture’, which is now regarded as the first history of Israeli architecture. I first show how these two instances synthesised the 1930s search for a national style and the regional planning approaches of the 1950s and 1960s. I then argue that this synthesis corresponded to the ways architects in Israel, and especially professors of architecture at the Technion, envisioned their profession’s civic service in the context of welfare-state ideology. They understood their service as articulating the state planning discourse, which viewed the region as a historical, cultural entity, and their profession as a neutral and implicit factor in establishing the architecture of this national-regional place. My analysis engages with scholarship on the political entanglement of architecture and state planning. As such, it contributes to the understanding of the ways in which, through this entanglement, Israeli design expertise and professional norms accommodated the combined knowledge of architects and urban planners.

Heidegger’s Relative Essentialism

ABSTRACT There is relatively little comprehensive treatment of Heidegger’s theory of essences despite his ubiquitous use of essences. It is commonplace in contemporary analytic philosophy to view essences as the ground for true de re modal claims. I argue that Heidegger offers an account of essences that can best be understood as a type of relative essentialism. Relative essentialism is the view that more than one being can occupy the same space at the same time and those beings have distinct sets of de re modal truths about them. Heidegger’s account of essences allows for true de re modal claims about a wide variety of things including scientific and cultural entities. At the same time, Heidegger rejects absolute essentialism: the view that there is one privilege collection of beings whose natures determine the truth values of de re modal claims about them. Relative essentialism is distinguished from contextual essentialism.

A Phenomenological Turn in Archaeological Explanation: is it Possible?

Archaeology borrows some ideas from semiotics which, in its reductionist variant, tends to see symbolic features as passive signs that only through the acts of human mind can acquire social value. As a consequence this confines research to strictly regional and time defined cultural entities characterized by linear evolution.

Model of the essential attributes of visual culture as the criteria for studying artifacts and design of new visual images

The object of this research is visual culture in the context of studying artifacts and design of new visual images. The subject of this research is the theoretical reflection on the essential attributed as the general characteristics of visual culture. The author compares the depiction of the artifacts of visual culture artifacts in postmodernism and constructivism. Postmodernism does not aim to build holistic images and reveal the content through visual form. Constructivism, in turn, structures holistic and aesthetically expressive forms of artifacts in unity with the content. The knowledge and meanings in visual artifacts are constructed via graphic spatial and artistic features. Special attention is given to the constructivist approach as a theoretical-methodological substantiation for studying the essential attributes of visual artifacts. Such approach allows the cultural entities to build semantic models by means of the general cultural geometric language in the dialectical synthesis of various forms, content, and conventional meanings. The artistic interpretations contribute to creation of the unique content. The constructivist approach includes the following methods: deconstructivism of conducting detailed analysis of the artifacts; constructivism of building new aesthetically expressive images. The result of this research lies in systematization of the essential attributes of visual culture for all forms and content. The novelty of consists in correspondence of the constructivist approach to the object and subject of the research, as well as in examination of the actual reality of the modern visual culture of digital technologies and new constructive methods of visualizing form and content in the images.

“Hard-won joy”: Equity through collaboration

ABSTRACT Schools, community organizations, and major cultural entities can address educational inequities by engaging parents and children in arts processes, projects, and performances. Three cases featuring work in the arts show promise in contributing to the positive academic and social development of learners across the socio-economic spectrum. Â Learning science principles stand behind the practice of shifting roles, a practice that research shows to be highly effective means of boosting learning. Two cases describe direct school-home activities in which students take on the role of creative historians and produce new types of materials for peers, family, and community members. A third case, based on principles from design research, describes Public Works, a program started in 2013 by the Public Theater in New York City. The authors summarize using four metaphors related to the learning sciences that address equity issues by constructing a robust dialectic between social responsibility and imagination.

ВОЗМОЖНОСТИ И ПРАВОВЫЕ ОСНОВАНИЯ АКТУАЛИЗАЦИИ КУЛЬТУРНОГО НАСЛЕДИЯ КАК РЕСУРСА ТУРИСТСКОЙ ОТРАСЛИ КРЫМА

Nowadays, one of the most urgent tasks of the socio-cultural policy of the Russian Federation is to solve the problems of preservation and actualization of the cultural heritage as an important factor in the spiritual and material life of people. The study emphasizes that the issues of preservation and the development of the cultural heritage have always been significant for Russia and the Crimea. So, these issues have become particularly relevant as a result of the events of 2014 − the reunification of the Crimea with Russia and the introduction of various measures against the Crimean Republic of “anctions” nature, which caused an active search for additional resources for the regional development – including the field of culture. According to the developed approach of this article, the cultural heritage can be not only an integral part of history in modern conditions, as well as the Keeper of spirituality, etc., but also a source of the development of territories. At the same time, the author emphasizes that the cultural heritage itself, without “the involvement” in a variety of socio-cultural practices, cannot be a factor of the regional development. Particular attention is paid to the assessment of the regulatory framework of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Crimea in terms of preservation, the usage and the promotion of the cultural heritage. The author notes that this practical importance of the cultural heritage as a resource acquires in the relevant social and constructive practices, and above all – in tourism, are increasingly supported by the point of view in the domestic expert cultural community. The article describes the features of the representation of the cultural heritage of the Crimea. The author provides a description and analysis the number of measures that can attract the cultural heritage to the tourist activities of the region. At the same time, the author notes a certain positive effect of the use of the cultural heritage as a resource of tourism, draws attention to a number of problems that require the consideration and the solution. The conclusions emphasize that the cultural heritage and tourism are interrelated elements of the socio-cultural sphere. However, if the cultural heritage is considered as a resource for the development of territories at the level of the Federal legislation, then the usage of the cultural heritage will be still fragmented in practice. It has a mosaic character, and so it needs to be formed a systematic, interdepartmental approach. Therefore, there is an urgent need to create special platforms for the interaction of the government and the business nowadays in Russia and in its regions, including the Republic of Crimea. It is necessary to use mechanisms of the inter-sectoral coordination between tourism agencies and cultural entities, the purpose of which should be to support and to present a holistic socio-cultural environment of the territories through the implementation of their cultural potential, by means of tourist activities as well.

INTERNATIONAL POSTURE, INTEGRATIVENESS AND L2 MOTIVATION IN THE SERBIAN EFL CONTEXT

In line with globalization, the development of bicultural identities and the emergence of English as a world language, the notion of “World English identity” or “international posture” has emerged, defined as the concept of English language separated from its native communities and cultures. As a means of explaining how an individual tends to relate oneself to the global community rather than any particular geographical or cultural entity, international posture has been regarded as an alternative to the notion of integrativeness or an interest in learning a foreign language in order to identify with a specific language community. Previous research has demonstrated that the lack of identification with native speakers and their cultures is an important motivating factor for English language learners in various contexts. The aim of the study is to determine which factor is a more significant predictor of English language learning motivation, international posture or integrativeness, in Serbia, that is, in the context with limited contact with the target language community. For this purpose, we conducted a survey with non-English major university students. The method of data collection involved a questionnaire survey aimed at examining the students’ international posture, integrativeness and their English language learning motivation. The results indicated that both international posture and integrativeness are predictors of the participants’ motivation for English language learning, while the concept of international posture proved to be a more significant source of the learners’ motivation. The present findings provide important insights into the nature of L2 motivation of the participants, thus carrying some pedagogical implications.

Nowe siedziby instytucji kultury w Polsce – perspektywa lokalnych ekosystemów kultury

New venues of Cultural Institutions in Poland — the Perspective of Local Cultural Ecosystems Building new venues for cultural activity involves a shift in the balance of power in the entire sys­tem of relations in the local communities of authors and organisers. This is a matter of budget and, very often, also of cultural policy priorities. Furthermore, it entails a significant change in the long-term funding of cultural initiatives and cultural entities in each region. The phenomenon of the emergence of many new cultural facilities has inspired a few fundamental questions about their at­titudes to selected values in the field of sustainable development goals, particularly in the social and economic dimensions, but ultimately also of the impact of new cultural venues on the natural en­vironment. Are the new investments in culture opportunities, challenges, or perhaps threats result­ing from the rescaled or disturbed balance in local cultural ecosystems? The theoretical perspective, which organises the debate on these areas, takes the cultural ecosystem as a key concept, using it as a basis for the description of phenomena in local urban communities. The observations present­ed are based on the qualitative and quantitative research conducted in eight cultural institutions in eight Polish cities. The results reveal the importance of between ten and twenty fundamental di­mensions of the activity of cultural institutions and their local government organisers which allow them to put down their roots more deeply in the city’s cultural ecosystem. A new building opens completely new possibilities, but it is extremely important to tailor the institution to the real, saga­ciously assessed, and well-balanced possibilities of the local ecosystem.

Positive and negative legal liability as a dialectical relationship of legal culture and anti-culture entities

Positive and negative legal liability as a dialectical relationship of legal culture and anti-culture entities