Cultural Ideas Research Articles

Transcultural Identity of Twerking: A Cultural Evolution Study of Women’s Bodily Practices of the Slavic and East African Communities

ABSTRACT Human culture is built upon nature to help humans adapt to their environment – first natural, but later natural-cultural. Cultural practices are aimed at aiding survival in changing environments, and in different settings they meet different environmental pressures, causing later changes in trajectories. According to cultural evolutionism, behaviours, ideas and artefacts are subject to inheritance, competition, accumulation of modifications, adaptation, geographical distribution, convergence and changes of function – these are mechanisms present also in biological evolution. In the following paper, we examine women’s dance and physical exercise practices, which contain similar postures performed in comparable circumstances, as found in initiation ritual dances in chosen East African communities and in Slavic gymnastics for women in the Belarusian tradition. In times of globalization and the mixing of cultures, the position on knees and elbows is recontextualized in a visually attractive form of contemporary dances like Kangamoko and Baikoko, or more widely different variants of ‘twerking’ and reconstructed physical exercises. Approaching ‘twerking’ positions, especially on knees and elbows as a cross-genre performance, we find common roots in the communal support for women’s good wife and mother status teachings in various cultures, showing the importance of women’s circles, women’s health and well-being for the community.

Linguacultural and Cognitive Peculiarities of Linguistic Universals.

The discussion about linguistic universals, initiated over 50 years ago by J. Greenberg, remains a topic of significant interest today. While there's an ongoing debate on the universality of linguistic forms - with some supporting the notion and others dismissing it as baseless-the idea of a unifying linguistic essence stands firm. The article aims to explore the linguacultural values of language, particularly how they enable the reconstruction of ideas and stereotypes within specific segments of a language system. The research found that universal language characteristics serve as a rich source of information for those studying linguacultural aspects. These traits offer nationally determined interpretations of words, drawing from associations rooted in either tangible or cultural codes. When delving into cultural codes present within every culture, the study discerned the presence of basic and universal codes. The existence of these codes provides insights into the formation of stereotypes, which encapsulate the experiences and knowledge intrinsic to the bearers of a culture. Linguistic universals, underpinned by universal grammar and semantic foundations, occupy a central position in linguacultural examinations, especially when reconstructing cultural ideas and stereotypes. Basic and universal cultural codes inherent in each culture facilitate the creation of linguistic worldviews.

HOW TO NETWORK CULTURE: THE ANALYSIS OF THE ECOSYSTEM OF LATVIAN MUSIC FIELD

The study on the ecosystem of the Latvian music field was carried out within the framework of the CARD project (“the Cultural Capital as a Resource for Sustainable Development of Latvia”) implemented by the Institute of Arts and Cultural Studies of the Latvian Academy of Culture (LAC). One of the tasks of the CARD project was to analyse the cultural ecosystem of Latvia and identify its operator groups, their relationships, and impacts in order to assess the resources of the arts and cultural capital in Latvia [LAC 2020]. Based on initial research, it was suggested to focus on a smaller-scale ecosystem and a specific sub-sector [Laķe, Kunda & Tjarve 2022]. Therefore, this article examines the case of the Latvian music field within the cultural ecosystem of Latvia, as it encompasses a wide range of diverse operator groups. The key theoretical concept used in the research is “ecosystems” – the idea of culture as an ecology that reveals a larger system in a non-hierarchical way [Holden 2015]. In the sociology of art, perceiving culture as a larger system with many equal components is not new; for instance, Howard Becker’s art worlds are based on networks and the distribution of key resources within them [Becker 1974; 1982]. John Holden’s concept of the ecology of culture provides further methodological tools to analyse cultural networks within an ecosystem. The approach suggested by Holden is social network analysis (SNA) [Holden 2015]. While in theory, social network analysis (SNA) holds potential benefits for studying a cultural ecosystem, empirical studies on its application for measuring a cultural ecosystem and its associated limitations remain incomplete. The aim of the paper is to analyse the advantages and limitations of studying a cultural ecosystem using SNA. Two research questions are set: (1) How to analyse the ecosystem of Latvian music field and identify the main operator groups and their relationships? (2) What are the advantages and limitations of employing SNA to study the ecosystem of the Latvian music field? The results contribute to advancing methodological skills in both studying cultural ecosystems and developing SNA in the cultural field.

CULTURAL IDENTITY OF EMERGING FILMMAKERS: THE EXPERIENCE OF CENTRAL ASIAN STUDENT FILMS

This article explores the cultural impact of emerging filmmakers to Central Asian cinemathrough an analysis of their student films. The study aims to highlight the themes commonly used inCentral Asian student films and how they reflect the region’s cultural identity.Using a comparative analysis, this study examines a selection of student films from Central Asianfilm schools, analyzing the common themes and motifs present in the films. The results reveal that themost frequently used themes in Central Asian student films are cultural traditions, social issues, familydynamics, and gender roles.The analysis also indicates that these themes are depicted through a variety of film techniques,including framing, lighting, and camera angles, highlighting the influence of cultural values andaesthetics on the region’s filmmaking practices.The study concludes that Central Asian student films provide a unique insight into the region’scultural identity, as emerging filmmakers use their work to explore and represent their experiencesand perspectives. These films offer a platform for the expression of cultural values and ideas,highlighting the diversity and richness of the Central Asian region.The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of the cultural significance of emergingfilmmakers and the importance of cultural identity in worldwide cinematography. The articleemphasizes the need for continued support and recognition of Central Asian filmmakers and theirwork, providing a platform for the development and promotion of the region’s cultural identity.

A Study on the Influence of Higher Education Foreign Language Teachers’ Intercultural Communication Competence on the Dissemination of Chinese Excellent Culture

Abstract This study employs gray system theory to refine the multiple linear regression model, resulting in the development of the gray multiple linear regression method. Utilizing School A as the primary subject, this approach involves gray scaling the intercultural communication skills of college instructors (independent variable) and the effectiveness of Chinese culture dissemination (dependent variable). This transformation aids in resolving the sequence of whitened background values for each variable. This transformation aids in sequencing the whitened background values for each variable. The regression coefficients are then calculated using the Cholesky method to determine the linear correlation between the variables and assess how intercultural communication skills influence cultural dissemination outcomes. The analysis of the influence of college teachers’ intercultural communicative competence on the effect of cultural transmission found that the language competence of college foreign language teachers is related to “attitude toward learning Chinese excellent culture” (0.432) and “whether it is necessary to teach the idea of Chinese excellent culture in the classroom” (0.503) both have significant correlations. The analytical results of this paper provide a reference basis for promoting the wide dissemination of Chinese excellent culture, as well as a direction for improving the cross-cultural communicative competence of foreign language teachers in colleges and universities.

Exploration of Digital Inheritance Ideas of Chinese Traditional Music Culture in the Information Age

Abstract In the era of information technology, with the deepening of cultural heritage protection, the importance of digital technology intervention in traditional art and culture for protection and inheritance has become more significant, and the digital inheritance of Chinese traditional music culture has also received widespread attention. In this paper, we first preprocess the traditional music signal and extract the Meier multifrequency coefficients, then use the feature as the input of the deep confidence network, and then keep tuning the parameter training to get the optimal network model, and finally utilize the obtained optimal model to recognize the traditional music. Based on this basis, this paper focuses on the concept of the digital heritage of Chinese traditional music culture through three steps: recognition, processing, display, and dissemination. We also designed and developed a Chinese traditional music culture APP for Chinese traditional music lovers and inheritors and examined the effect and performance of the APP application based on the music recognition model in this paper. The modeling methods proposed in this paper meet the usage requirements by having accuracy rates above 90%. 73.25% of the audience expressed satisfaction and very satisfaction with the overall application effect of the Chinese traditional music APP. In this paper, the Chinese traditional music digital APP proposes an effective means of communication for the solution of digital inheritance and also provides a realizable path for the digital inheritance of Chinese traditional music culture.

SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF J. WINTER AND A. SIMPLE ABOUT THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN THE CULTURAL MEMORY OF THE BRITISH

In recent decades, scholars of the history of the First World War have increasingly recognized the role of cultural memory in shaping our understanding of this historical period. The works of Jay Winter and Antoine Prost, known for their in-depth explorations of cultural and collective memory in Western societies, represent significant contributions to this area of research. Their work sheds light on how the First World War was perceived and imprinted in people's minds, how it influenced their cultural norms, constructed worldviews and collective ideas about war, heroism and suffering. In this article, we will examine the main concepts and methodologies proposed by Winter and Prost and their influence on modern historiography of the First World War, as well as a critique of the authors' own views on research.

Vliv vzdělávacích programů na postoje žáků k antice a jejímu zastoupení v populární kultuře

Can educational programs have an effect on pupils’ attitudes towards the given topic? An experiment on this topic was conducted among elementary school pupils. This experiment had two phases, in June 2022 students were approached with filling out a questionnaire, the research group first attended an educational program on daily life in ancient Rome. The other half, who did not attend the programme, served as a control group. The questionnaire explored pupils’ attitudes towards antiquity, the perceived meaning of archaeology and its connection to modern history, the representation of antiquity in popular culture and stereotypical ideas about it. The research group also evaluated the educational programme and the benefits of excursions in general. In the second phase (November 2022), pupils in both groups completed a questionnaire aimed solely on pupils’ attitudes towards antiquity. The results of the two groups were then analyzed and compared. A surprising finding for the researchers was that the control group showed a slightly more positive attitude towards antiquity and its importance during both June and November measurements, which may be due to several factors such as the topics discussed in class at that time, the teachers’ teaching methods, and other activities in which the pupils participated that were not controlled during the experiment. There was no positive effect of the educational programme on the consumption of media with the theme of the ancient world (books, films, games, etc.). A slight difference can be seen in the perception of the meaning of archaeology, where the research group is more likely to be inclined towards understanding technology and inventions. One can speculate whether direct contact with replicas of archaeological objects is reflected here. A more significant difference between the control and research groups lies, for example, in the knowledge test.

Succession and Cultural Interaction of the Worldview of the Kazakh People with Ancient Greek Mythology and Philosophy

The main idea of the work is the concept of the formation of philosophy in Ancient India and Ancient Greece, based on the initial close connection of myth, religion, and science, which subsequently contributes to the separation of theoretical philosophy as a form of knowledge based on logic and pure reason. In the article, based on a summary of scientific studies published in recent years, it is shown that this trend is characteristic of the Turkic people, including the Kazakh people, who also did not stay away from this process. Each person, thanks to oral literature and folklore, which accumulates the basis of popular worldview, indulges in fleeting fantasies about life, and develops the ability to independently think about the existence of the world. The article also analyzes the question of the influence of the nomadic way of life on the perfection of deep thinking of the steppe people. The author comes to the conclusion that, despite the specific historical and cultural conditions, the knowledge and ideas of the ancient Greeks and the Kazakh people about the world, being, man, society, nature and life are very closely intertwined and demonstrate a deep connection. Such well-known scientists as Auezkhan Kodar, Seit Kaskabasov, Sagadi Bulekbaev in their studies of biogenetic laws and altered states of consciousness, based on typological analysis, note that this continuity and interrelationship of worldviews is not accidental, and cultural dialogue is not limited to a certain historical period. This is a continuous process that is reflected in the consciousness of each new generation, and thus goes beyond the space-time continuum. In their mythological knowledge, both peoples were among the first to try to generalize, classify and understand the systematicity, diversity and multiplicity of the universe. The result is the conclusion that both the formation of knowledge about the surrounding world and the realization of oneself and the meaning of life took place through the synthesis of conceptual thinking and artistic universals

Constructing and Using the Portrait Sitting as an Art-Historical Research Object

Portraiture is said to have evolved from a collaborative social practice to an artist-centric one. I challenge this view by focusing on the portrait sitting. I develop a portrait-sitting ontology, and a portrait-sitting database. I do so with reference to works in London's National Portrait Gallery, because the gallery features noteworthy sitters, leading to rich interpersonal exchanges during sittings. An approach from my portrait-sitting database shows the contributions of sitters to portrait production, calls attention to shared social and cultural ideas behind particular types of portrait production, and supports new interpretations of portraits and new periodisations of portraiture.

성인 학습자의 금융이해력 발달경험에 대한 자문화기술지

The aim of this article is to shed light on an adult learner’s financial literacy development experience from an insider’s point of view through autoethnography. The research results are briefly presented as follows. Firstly, I controlled the size of my desire for goods and money, endured the volatility and loss of financial assets. These attempts corresponded to the self-management competency of the competency-based curriculum. Secondly, I constructed self-knowledge about the investment target, distinguished between speculation and investment, and managed the risk of investment with financial knowledge. This financial literacy was in line with knowledge information processing capability. Thirdly, I searched for investment destinations with a wide range of culture and reverse ideas, and invested while drawing a future society with humanistic imagination. This financial literacy corresponded to the creative thinking and aesthetic sensitivity competencies of the competency-based curriculum. Fourthly, I communicated with others, made investments to accompany companies, and tried to become an altruistic investment educator. These attempts corresponded to the collaborative communication and community competency of the competency-based curriculum. In the end, as an adult learner, I was able to develop financial literacy by becoming aware of the interrelationship between financial literacy and educational competency. This study will provide practical and theoretical implications for improving financial literacy by interpretively discussing an adult learner’s financial literacy development experience and its educational meaning.

Virus as a figure of geontopower or how to practice Foucault now?

Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Franz Boas Professor at Columbia University, is a philosopher and anthropologist who has critically engaged with Michel Foucault’s ideas as well as scholarship inspired by his works. Povinelli has been dedicated to research on colonialism within liberalism and is also a filmmaker and founding member of The Karrabing Film Collective. The film collective is part of a larger organization of Aboriginal peoples and artists living in the Australian Northern Territory that refuses ‘fantasies of sovereignty and property’.[1]
 As Povinelli shares with us during the interview, her trajectory was constituted in the middle of the 1980s following her life-changing encounter with the elders in Belyuen in the Australian Northern Territory. In the wake of that encounter, and with urgent issues raised about indigeneity due to changes in Australian law, Povinelli has been working even closer with her Karrabing family. The changes in law both acknowledged Aboriginal peoples' rights to their territory and imposed certain ideas of identity, family and culture, producing an entanglement between rights and government. These efforts to manage differences – cultural, race, gender – are problematized and deciphered in Povinelli’s ethnographic work with a focus on how late settler liberalism has been reconfigured with novel expressions of colonialism and imperialism. Now embedded...

Implementation of Primary School Students' Religious Character Through School Culture

Abstract This research was conducted to reveal the embodiment of religious character education through school culture. Through a qualitative approach, the case study model of this research uses school principals and teachers as the main respondents. Data collection techniques use interviews and field observations. The collected data was analyzed using the Miles & Huberman model, and its validity was tested using source triangulation and technical triangulation. The results of the research show that religious character education is formed 1) in the habit of congregational prayer, such as Duha prayers, prayers before and after learning, 2) in the form of physical objects, artifacts that have a religious pattern and religious value. All buildings and physical objects are used to strengthen an environment that supports a religious character. 3) a culture of thinking which is manifested in the vision and mission of the Islamic boarding school, the religious thoughts of students and teachers which are expressed in their behavior and spirit of faith. The culture of ideas is realized in everyday life. Its implementation is supported by factors such as adequate capacity and participation of all school children in school culture. The inhibiting factor is a lack of awareness among some students and differences in ability.

Reflection of Chinese Cultural Realities in the Modern Russian Language in the Paradigm of Subject and Semantic Correspondences

The article deals with the importance of language and culture interaction, the linguistic and cultural characteristics as features of the languages belonging to various linguistic macrogroups (Russian as part of Indo-European, Chinese as part of Sino-Tibetan). The paper highlights the importance of translation in the interaction of linguistic cultures; the difficulties that can be encountered in interpreting the realities of another culture are indicated, which is due to both the peculiarities of the lexical and grammatical structure of the source and translating languages, and the peculiarities associated with the traditional culture of the language community.
 The component of the meaning of the real words of the Russian and Chinese languages with different semantic structures is part of the denotative macro component of the lexical meaning of the word. The national-cultural component of words with different degrees of differentiation of concepts in the Russian and Chinese languages is included in the significative macro component of their lexical meaning, and its content consists of differential semes of the significative macro component. The national-cultural component of the lexical meaning of words of corresponding languages with a mismatched internal form is the semes of the denotative macro component. Russian linguoculture should take into account the specifics of the Russian language, and in cases where the realities are completely alien to Russian national and cultural ideas, the necessary historical and other comments are tobe given. It should be noted that recently, due to the intensification of national-cultural and economic contacts, a great number of words (including national-specific realities) from the Chinese language have been penetrating into the Russian language, which requires separate linguistic research.

НИГИЛИЗМ КАК ФЕНОМЕН В ЗАПАДНОЕВРОПЕЙСКОЙ ФИЛОСОФСКО-АНТРОПОЛОГИЧЕСКОЙ ТРАДИЦИИ

Статья посвящена рассмотрению эволюции феномена нигилизма в западноевропейской философско-антропологической мысли. В ней отмечается неоднозначный характер протекания и становления нового неклассического дискурса в философии ХХ века, его влияние на формирование современных философских течений современности, который был закономерным явлением на фоне мировоззренческого «голода» в Европе, некоего духовного тупика. Несмотря на то, что нигилизм ярко проявляется лишь со второй половины XIX века, в современной Европе ныне вновь наблюдаются признаки упадка духовных ценностей, поиск новой формулы развития европейского общества на фоне кризиса процессов глобализации во всём мире.Кроме того, в статье также косвенно затрагивается вопрос рецепции культур-философских идей Востока, без которого нигилизм как философское учение невозможен. Отмечается, что современная эпоха с её трагическими метаморфозами проистекает из-за усугубления философско-антропологических проблем современности, ведущих к проявлению нигилизма в её различных формах. Интерес к нигилизму обусловлен логикой и историей развития человека, в особенности в XXI веке, когда происходит ломка международных отношений, основанных на понятиях права и морали; когда сами государства, порой сознательно, становятся на зыбкий путь государственного нигилизма со всеми вытекающими антигуманными и катастрофическими последствиями своих действий, обусловливая свою политику идеологемой о защите национальных интересов.Конечно, движение к нигилизму по-своему закономерно, ибо современность требует иных подходов и методологии решения, как назревших глобальных, так и локальных проблем. Кроме того, в нигилизме отражается диалектика бытия, становление нового и изменение старого, и как любой процесс трансформации он болезнен и порой катастрофичен. Поэтому современная система мироустройства нуждается в переосмыслении и поиске новой гуманистической парадигмы, культурном и философском сближении и взаимодействии.Таким образом, вполне оправданно можно утверждать о существовании правового, морального, политического, метафизического, онтологического, методологического, психологического, мереологического аспектов нигилизма, которые берут своё начало от философских и собственно аксиологических оснований субъекта. Тем не менее, статья не преследует цель раскрыть это многогранное понятие в его различных вариациях, ввиду сложности осмысления нигилизма в контексте исторических, экономических, политических, экономических, социальных, культурных и иных основаниях бытия, хотя и указывает на наличие таковой связи.

Chronological Hygiene and Bayesian Modeling of Poverty Point Sites in the Lower Mississippi Valley, circa 4200 to 3200 cal BP

AbstractDevelopments in radiocarbon dating and analysis provide new opportunities to develop high-resolution chronologies to explore changes through time. We explore the temporality of what has been called the Poverty Point culture of the lower Mississippi Valley circa 4200 to 3200 cal BP, especially the chronology of the type site, Poverty Point. Because of its complicated material culture elaboration without evidence of agriculture, Poverty Point has been identified as the political and economic center of a complex archaeological culture. The duration of site occupation and the historical relationship between the type site and those assumed to be contemporary are critical variables for explaining the emergence of complexity at this time. Most interpretations require political or evolutionary processes that accumulate gradually over hundreds of years. Our data show, however, that there is no temporal coherence among so-called Poverty Point culture sites; among such sites, Poverty Point was occupied for a relatively short period, and it is younger than many sites thought to be derived from it. Using explicit radiometric hygiene and Bayesian analyses of dates, we reject the idea of a unified Poverty Point culture and argue instead that the Poverty Point site earthworks developed through rapid, punctuated events occurring circa 3300 to 3200 cal BP.

Ambiguities and Contradictions Surrounding the Body and Education: Thoughts inspired by S. Polenghi, A. Németh, T. Kasper (eds.). Education and the Body in Europe (1900–1950). Movements, Public Health, Pedagogical Rules and Cultural Ideas.

Ambiguities and Contradictions Surrounding the Body and Education: Thoughts inspired by S. Polenghi, A. Németh, T. Kasper (eds.). Education and the Body in Europe (1900–1950). Movements, Public Health, Pedagogical Rules and Cultural Ideas.

Рец. на кн.: Lan Anh Hoang. Vietnamese Migrants in Russia: Mobility in Times of Uncertainty. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020. 259 p.

The analytical framework of an ethnographic study of the lives of Vietnamese migrants in Russia by Professor Lan Anh Hoang (University of Melbourne) is “uncertainty”. The author understands it as the structural conditions that make the lives of migrants unpredictable and eliminate their ability to influence their choices and the results of their choices. The uncertainty is caused by the migration regime in Russia and xenophobia, pushing migrants into the informal sector of the economy and the zone of invisibility. It is also experienced by migrants as a subjective experience of vulnerability. To reveal the duality of uncertainty as a structural condition and as a subjective experience, Hoang devotes the first part of the book to the main themes of migrants’ lives in Russia: moving to the host country, infrastructure for migrants, work and leisure. The second part of the book is built around traditional anthropological themes: kinship, morality, cultural ideas and how they are determined in structural conditions of uncertainty and vulnerability. Despite the fact that Russia is one of the leading countries in the number of labor migrants, there are very few studies of migration in Russia, and there are practically no ethnographies. The book under review is a rare opportunity to have a glimpse of the life of migrants not from the outside perspective of the host society with its labeling, but from the inside. At the same time, the chosen frame of uncertainty not only sets the logic of the analysis, but also prevents the rich ethnography from disintegrating into separate small research discoveries. The book shows how uncertainty runs deep, how it undermines the foundations of human relationships, and how Vietnamese migrants try to cope with it.

Somatic Antonymy: Common and Specific Features of Lexical and Phraseological Antonyms

The evolution of society and the changes that occur in the surrounding reality also imply continuous changes in the means of verbal expression of a language. Thus, language with its phraseological micro-universe is a very complex phenomenon, susceptible to evolution and change, which is very slow to develop and leads to the emergence of new words and phrases, syntactic structures parallel to the traditional ones. In its uninterrupted dynamic, it enhances the means it offers to express our ideas and feelings more clearly, concisely and expressively. It is well known that there are phraseological units with close meanings (synonymic phraseological expressions) and those with opposite meanings (antonymic phraseological expressions), phenomena that are widespread in the creation of the phraseological treasury stricto modo. In this article we will investigate the phenomenon of somatic phraseological antonymic series and in particular we are to lay emphasis on their common and specific features. We start from the hypothesis that the use of these somatic phraseological antonymic series allows us, on the one hand, to avoid cases of ambiguity of the lexical units themselves, and on the other hand, to identify either bipolar cultural ideas or concepts within a culture. We set out to study the two types of lexical and phraseological antonymy since they complement each other and liquidate the gaps in both systems of English and Romanian polar units.

Boys, Masculinity, and Education

During the 1990s and 2000s, many countries witnessed new discourses on boys and education both within research and the wider popular discourse. This took place in the context of a feminist critique of patriarchal relations, a global monitoring of education, and an increased interest in the negative consequences of traditional masculinity, not only for women, queer people, or the nature and global ressources, but also for boys and men themselves. Mainly, the discussions centred on three key topics. First, boys’ encountering, incorporating, and/or resisting cultural ideas of masculinity were being looked at with a strong focus on gender hierarchies and gender norms (Connell 2000; Kimmel 2008; Plummer 1999; Salisbury and Jackson 1996). Second, boys’ situations in educational institutions were discussed controversially with regard to disadvantages and/or privileges of boys in education (Epstein et al. 1998; Kenway et al. 1997; Martino et al. 2009). Third, the situations of particular groups of boys were explored, acknowledging the diversity of boys and the intersectionality of masculinity and gender with other social categories and hierarchies (Martino and Pallotta-Chiarolli 2003; Nayak 2003).