Cultural Export Research Articles

Pour une typologie des relations culturelles russo-ukrainiennes

Vadim Skuratovsku, For a typology of cultural relationship between Russia and Ukraine. The cultural relations between Russia and Ukraine have often been analyzed from various standpoints; however, their specific nature, — in so far as they were "extra-ethnic" relations, particularly in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries — , has not always been stressed. This article tries to show how the "huge Ukrainian" cultural exports to Russia account for it. Later on, during the narodnichestvo and the twentieth-century revolutions, those relations have been interspersed with interethnic factors, which turned into "international" (mezhnatsional'nye) ones. However, the significant presence of Ukrainian culture in Russian culture may be a guarantee of the normalization of cultural as well as political relationship between the two countries.

The Pig and the Long Yam: The Expansion of a Sepik Cultural Complex

That human communities cannot be treated a mosaic of isolated cultural permutations has been realized for some time. Rather, they are embedded in larger systems of relations which increasingly have become the focus of anthropological study in their own right. To date, the main work in this area is by political economists who have attempted to elucidate the interrelations of local economies and polities, usually out of an interest in the effects of capitalist penetration. Cultural or ritual interactions, though, have been rather less the objects of regional studies (cf. Werbner 1977), partly perhaps because symbol and ideology are often viewed little more than reflection or legitimation of social relations. Needless to say, this situation has begun to change with the recognition in cultural anthropology and archaeology that the expansion of cultural and symbolic forms can be a ready point of departure for cultural integration, political expansion, and settlement centralization (e.g., Keatinge 1981; Knauft 1985; Lindstrom 1984; Schwartz 1963). Unfortunately, the processes by which cultural and symbolic forms spread are still poorly understood. The societies of the Sepik Basin of Papua New Guinea thus have a special ethnographic relevance to the problem because they engage in an import and export of ritual and artistic culture that reaches intensities almost unparalleled in the nonindustrial world (Barlow 1985; Errington and Gewertz 1986; Harrison 1987; Lipset 1985; Lutkehaus 1985; Lutkehaus and Roscoe 1987; Mead 1938:162; Tuzin 1984:4). This interaction assumes two major forms. Among the societies of the Sepik River and Coast, it is particularly pronounced a kind of trade in discrete cultural and symbolic items (spells, cult sacra, house-styles, stone monoliths, and so on) that are treated though they were transactable goods as more than just meaningful or expressive forms, but political and economic resources, values to be bought, sold, exchanged, stolen, hoarded, and so forthH (Harrison 1987:493). Among the cultures in the southern foothills of the Torricelli-Prince Alexander ranges, however, a form appears that has received rather less analytical attention and which is perhaps best described a large-scale cultural transfer or assimilation. Although this transfer sometimes entails economic or political transactions, it is not so much a trade a gradual diffusion of cultural complexes across entire societies on a scale usually large enough to precipitate further, substantial cultural changes. In this paper, I attempt to elucidate some of the motivational and processual underpinnings of this sort of phenomenon by examining a relatively recent instance: the importation by several Yangoru Boiken villages of the spectacular long yam cult commonly associated with the Abelam. I attempt to show that the

American hegemony, Dominican resistance, and baseball

The context for the present study is fieldwork in the Dominican Republic to write a political ethnography of baseball which centers on an assessment of cultural hegemony and resistance through baseball. During 1987-1988 interviews, both formal and informal, were carried out, as were ethnographic observations of baseball teams at a variety of levels1. Interviews and surveys were also conducted among the fans attending professional games during the season. Fan attitudes related to issues of hegemony and resistance make up the present paper. In part, this research is motivated by the widespread acceptance of a cultural imperialist argument in which the cultural exports of the U.S. and the industrialized West to the rest of the world

Le gouvernement des Etats-Unis accroît sa maîtrise des flux internationaux d’information

The United States Government Increases its Control over the Flow of International Information. In President Reagan's first term of office, the United States led an aggressive, jingdîst and self-centered international communications policy. Championing the free flow of information, the United States increased the cultural exports, primarily through a more powerful and unified United States Information Agency (U.S.I.A.). Inter-agency programs have been mounted to counter Russian « propaganda » and vindicate the American democratic system. The Reagan administration has also strongly backed the exporting efforts of information and communication of private industries. On the other hand, these companies and the scientific community at large have resisted the administration's increased control over strategic and scientific exports of goods and data («Operation Exodus»). In fact, the Reagan administration seems unable to view the international flow of information otherwise than in terms of a battle in which the United States is pitted against the rest of the world.

The cultural property export and import act of Canada: A progress report

The cultural property export and import act of Canada: A progress report

Cytokinins from the Moss Physcomitrella patens

Gametophore-over-producing mutants of the moss, Physcomitrella patens, when grown in liquid culture export high levels of cytokinin into their culture medium. The cytokinin produced by these mutants is postulated to account for their peculiar phenotype, that of mosses treated with exogenous cytokinin. N(6)-(Delta(2)-isopentenyl)adenine, the major cytokinin, has been identified previously in two of these mutants (Wang, Cove, Beutelmann, Hartmann 1980 Phytochemistry 19: 1103-1105) and now in additional representatives. A second cytokinin, zeatin, has been identified by its chromatographic behavior and mass spectrum including chemical ionization mass spectrometry of its permethyl derivative.

The Protection of the Canadian Cultural Heritage: The Cultural Property Export and Import Act

As long as man remains creative and continues to express himself in artistic works, there is need to protect the products of his creation. The current crusade in favour of safeguarding the cultural heritage results from publicity given to the destruction of archaeological sites and antiquities, the smuggling of national art treasures, and the outcry against museums that have in their collections items that have been illegally exported. The crisis is clear. Unless the “cultural property-hungry” nations realize that controls against such illicit activities must be enforced stringently, the safety of mankind's cultural heritage is in doubt.

Copyright Protection Abroad for United States Cultural Exports

W ITH the advent of the twentieth century, and its continuing remarkable and varied developments in the communication of intelligence, has come an interesting change in the position of the United States of America in the cultural exchanges of the world. While during the nineteenth century the United States was an importer of culture, during the twentieth century this nation has become an exporter. This change has been an inevitable accompaniment of the emergence of the United States as a leader, among the nations of the world. The intellectual products of Americans increasingly have entered into the world channels of performance and publication, not only in English, but in all languages. From the earliest days of this century, motion pictures produced by Americans enjoyed unusual acceptance, particularly with the absence of a language barrier during the first thirty years of silents. Today, with dubbed sound tracks or translated subtitles for the non-English speaking countries, the spectacular pictures, such as Gone With the Wind, Around the World in Eighty Days, Ten Commandments, and Ben Hur, are compiling receipts in all countries that are spectacular in themselves. Of similarly great importance is the enthusiastic reception of recordings of American popular music in most of the market places of the world, including those of the Soviet Union. The older American movies are now moving into foreign television channels. United States producers and publishers comb all possible world sources of material suitable for stage play, motion picture, book, and musical publication and performances, not only for the United States market, but for adaptation into our own unique creative idioms for exploitation domestically and abroad. This is especially the case in our giant motion picture production industry whose American production investments depend upon the expectation that slightly over fifty-four per cent of its income comes from foreign