Influence Of European Culture Research Articles

Eksplorasi Etnomatematika pada Bangunan Cagar Budaya Ukiran Relief Istana Maimun di Kota Medan

Ethnomathematics is a field of study that combines mathematical concepts with cultural elements in people's lives. Maimun Palace, as one of the Malay cultural heritages located in Medan, North Sumatra, offers many examples of the application of ethnomathematics in its architecture and design. This research aims to explore how mathematical concepts, such as geometry, symmetry, fractals and proportions, are implemented in the building structure, ornaments and spatial layout of the Maimun Palace. The palace's architecture reflects a blend of local Malay, Islamic, Indian and European cultural influences, each of which carries unique mathematical values. In addition, symbolic elements of certain numbers are also found in the palace design, reflecting the cultural beliefs and philosophies of the local people. The results of this research show that the Maimun Palace is an important example of how mathematics is not only applied in a technical context, but is also influenced by beliefs, aesthetics, and cultural traditions. This study contributes to increasing understanding of the relationship between mathematics and culture and the importance of preserving cultural heritage through a multidisciplinary approach such as ethnomathematics. The method used is qualitative using library research

Jewellery Development in Right-Bank Ukraine and Galicia (XVI-XIX Centuries): Insights from Precious Ecclesiastical Artifacts

This article examines the development of jewellery in Right-Bank Ukraine and Galicia from the XVI to XIX centuries, focusing on precious ecclesiastical artifacts as evidence of the flourishing of Ukrainian goldsmithing. The relevance of the research stems from its detailed exploration of ecclesiastical jewellery in Right-Bank Ukraine and Galicia, providing a unique perspective on the region's artistic heritage and European cultural integration. The purpose is studying the artistic techniques used by Lviv and Kyiv jewellers in creating church artifacts like domes, icon covers, and other ecclesiastical items. The historical-genetic method enabled comprehensively analysing the evolution of Right-Bank Ukrainian jewellery in the example of church artifacts. Periodization identified three stages of Ukrainian goldsmithing's development in the XVI-XIX centuries. The system- structural method emphasized Western European cultural influence on overall Ukrainian jewellery. The typological approach reflected empirical reality of Right-Bank Ukrainian jewellery development as evidence of flourishing culture. Narrative described and explained the significance of jewellery artifacts at each stage of the formation of Ukrainian goldsmithing. Research materials included art organizations' experience, archaeological documentation, and museum exhibits. As a result of the research, the article presents the work of such Kyiv masters as: Iyeremiya Biletskyy, Ivan Ravych, and Matviy Narunovych. Detailed descriptions of works of art by Lviv and Kyiv masters of the XVI- XIX centuries are provided. And information about the Kyiv goldsmith shop is displayed. Conclusions confirm that Right-Bank Ukraine and Galicia were a stronghold of European jewellery styles in the 16th-19th centuries. The study of church artefacts by Ukrainian craftsmen shows a special cultural mentality shaped by centuries-old traditions and the multidenominational nature of Christian faiths. Thus, the materials of the article represent a practical value for historians, ethnographers, and architects who are interested in the construction of Orthodox churches; and jewellers engaged in artistic blacksmithing.

Pan-Africanism and Afrocentrism — current trends of the XXI century: the potential of symbiosis

The object of the study is the movement of pan-Africanism, which arose at the end of the XIX century and the concept of afrocentrism, at the end of the XX century. The first concept, pan-Africanism, turned into a powerful socio-political movement aimed at the national liberation, political struggle of the peoples of Africa against the metropolises, colonialism, as well as other forms of oppression. Afrocentrism was also formed as a tool to combat colonialism, but mentally, spiritually, and culturally. It was created as a tool to support and fight African Americans, the peoples of Africa and representatives of the African diaspora living around the world against the dominance of the Eurocentric model of the world. The subject of the study is the study of the formation of these concepts and the main ideological positions that formed the basis of their ideological foundation. The author examines in detail such aspects as spiritual decolonization, cultural decolonization, and the African personality. Special attention is paid to the study of the semantic core of pan-Africanism and Afrocentrism, the influence of European culture and the position of Africa as an object rather than a subject of history. The purpose of the work is to establish common ideological positions, as well as the possibility of symbiosis to solve the current challenges of the African continent. The methodological basis of the study was the historical approach necessary to restore the picture of past events, which were the basis for the formation of the ideological base of pan-Africanism, Afrocentrism, as well as the emergence of certain provisions. A systematic approach is used to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between ideological trends and determine the main trends in the development of these relations, methods of deduction, induction and synthesis. The novelty of the research lies in considering the concepts of pan-Africanism and Afrocentrism as complementary and mutually reinforcing parts. Both concepts were born almost a hundred years apart, but their similarity and relevance of ideas remain to this day. About 100 years ago, pan-Africanism called for the decolonization of African countries, and today for the eradication of neo-colonialism. Afrocentrism has common roots with pan-Africanism. The main conclusions of the study showed the possibility of a symbiosis of pan-Africanism and afrocentrism. It can become an effective tool for strengthening African society and obtaining the necessary energy to implement national strategies and protect the interests and values of both individual States and the continent as a whole.

GRAD PEĆ U PERIODU IZMEĐU DVA SVETSKA RATA

In the period between the two world wars, Peć was one of the few cities in Kosovo and Metohija (the others were Prizren, Priština and Kosovska Mitrovica). This city was a combination of modern and traditional, it had new, beautiful buildings but also classic minarets, ancient churches, the sevdah of Sarajevo and the Bey’s residences, towers like the castles of the counts, and streams ran through every courtyard in Peć. Muslims, who were the main bearers of the Turkish-Eastern culture, were of the greatest importance for the appearance of Peć, the way of life and work of the population. Later, the town began to be arranged under the influence of European culture. Peć was famous for goldsmithing, especially for the production of filigree works from gold and silver, the production of beautiful silk fabrics and carpets, which have been compared to Pirot carpets. Local merchants exported livestock, livestock products, and imported manufactured goods and colonial goods. The railroad was of inestimable economic importance. In my paper, I will review the history of the city of Peć in the period between the two world wars with the help of historical sources, literature and the press. For the history of the Serbs, the city of Peć is very important as the seat of patriarchs and medieval Serbian culture, a mirror of architectural art and the cradle of the Serbian empire.

THE INFLUENCE OF EUROPEAN ART ON CHINESE OPERA CULTURE

The article examines the influence of European culture on the origin and development of Beijing opera, focusing on the penetration and assimilation of European opera's characteristic features into Chinese musical culture. It systematically analyzes these innovations within the historical context, elucidating their role and position in the broader Chinese cultural and historical processes. The study reveals that the primary avenue for introducing European musical canons was through school songs, which, due to their simple composition and ease of performance, served as the basis for incorporating structured European approaches into Chinese music. It notes that the creation of the first officially recognized Chinese opera, “Grey-hair Girl”, followed the emergence of Children's Operas, which exhibited elements of Europeanization while retaining their melodic structure. The conclusions highlight that the development of the European experience within the opera genre unfolded in tandem with the evolution of compositional and dramatic patterns derived from Western opera. However, on a musical and stylistic level, Chinese composers remained rooted in the national tradition, endeavoring to achieve varying degrees of successful fusion between Western form and national content. It was only towards the latter part of the 20th century that a harmonious symbiosis began to emerge, integrating the organizational aspects of opera from the European experience with Chinese identity at different levels.

Zen buddhism in tradition, culture and society of Japan

Buddhism is Japan’s second largest religion, right behind Shinto. It includes multiple traditions and movements, but in Japan, it was domesticated as Zen Buddhism. Buddhism also exists in China, and it is called Chen there. Zen Buddhism has had an impact on Japanese tradition, culture and society as a whole. For example, through Buddhism, samurais despised the fear of death and developed courage, mercy, courtesy, truthfulness and honesty, honour, loyalty and self-control. Then, Zen Buddhism has had a major influence on sports, and this is reflected in martial arts (sports and skills). It is also visible in the rituals associated with the tea ceremony, or in poetry. The very nature of Zen is such that it reyects everything that is secondary, superfluous, imposed, and verbal. The Zen mind is a beginner’s mind, which means a mind that is ready to receive new knowledge, to acquire new skills. The Zen containing typically Japanese features summarizes elements of Buddhism from China and India, as well as Japanese ethical and cultural characteristics. The aim of this paper is to show that in addition to the European cultural influence in the world, there is another strong cultural influence that is manifested through religion, philosophy, art and science of the Far East. The subject of this paper is the main characteristics of Zen Buddhism, Zen schools and teachers, as well as the place of Zen Buddhism in the tradition and culture of Japan.

ЗАГАЛЬНИЙ ОГЛЯД НАЙБІЛЬШ РАННІХ АЦТЕКСЬКИХ КОДЕКСІВ

The importance of Mesoamerican codices as sources for studying the history and culture of the civilizations of this region is difficult to overestimate. More than 300 manuscripts, the origin of which is associated with the Mexica (Aztec) culture have survived to this day. Among other peoples of Mesoamerica, the conquerors from the Old World were the most interested exactly in the Aztecs. The Europeans studied indigenous language, culture and customs in order to know and understand their enemy. Traditional local books (codices) served as both a source of information and a means of influence. They were carefully studied, copied, translated and shipped to the Old World. The attitude of the colonial authorities towards such manuscripts was ambiguous. On the one hand, many codices were destroyed by the Catholic Inquisition as part of a campaign to eliminate traditional beliefs. On the other hand, the authorities actively sponsored the creation of new books, ordered them from local masters and reproduced them. Almost all surviving documents of this type were written after the conquest of the region, so only a few of the earliest manuscripts still embody the original artistic tradition. By studying them, we can trace how local customs are changing and gradually displacing under the influence of European culture. The article, based on the English- and Spanish-language scientific literature, as well as visual sources, contains basic information about the five earliest Aztec codices. Their alternative names and modern place of storage are specified, physical characteristics are given, the history of manuscripts, their content and artistic features are indicated. The work also highlights different views of modern researchers on the problem of dating those codices, the exact time of creation of which has not yet been finally established. Not a single Aztec manuscript that is unanimously recognized by scholars as pre-colonial has survived. The most ancient of them, according to the vast majority of researchers, were created either immediately before the Conquest, or in the first years after its start. On the basis of analyzed sources and literature, it was established that four of the five codices considered in this work to a greater or lesser degree contain obvious traces of European culture’s influence. The article also notes the importance of studying the Mesoamerican codices as sources on the history and culture of the region, with particular emphasis on the relevance of this problem in the Ukrainian-speaking scientific space.

Vonós hangszerek Afrikában

A survey of the available historical data allows one to show that the appearance and adoption of bowed string instruments in the different cultural regions of Africa took place in different periods and owing to different influences. After this instrument category had appeared in Central Asia in the 9th century, it spread to the eastern lands of the Arab world (Mashriq) in the 10th century, and thence to the western lands of the Arab world (Maghrib) in the course of the 12th to 13th centuries. The so-called rebab fiddle type (carved of a single piece of wood and provided with a body made of a coconut shell) was modified by the peoples of West Africa so that it had a body made of the locally abundant large calabash, while the peoples of northeastern Africa adopted various relatives of the kamanja fiddle type (having a box-like body), such as the Ethiopian masenko and the Eritrean wat’a. Contrastingly, the Swahili cultural region adopted the fiddle type having a pipe-shaped body, characteristic of the Far East and Southeast Asia, from the Chinese merchants and explorers of the early 15th century, an instrument type later carried by Swahili trading caravans into Central Africa and the southern parts of East Africa. Although the southernmost portion of South Africa is home to seemingly very archaic bowed string instruments, European cultural influences have been a definite factor in this region since the mid-17th century. It is unsurprising, then, that an etymological analysis of ostensibly archaic string instruments reveals the impact of European bowed instruments through stimulus diffusion, i.e. the local adoption of the idea of a bow and its adaptation to indigenous instruments previously played with hitting the strings or rubbing them with sticks. In comparison to other instruments of West Africa, bowed instruments have barely survived modernization and, obsolete as they now are, play little role on the stages of world music. This process was exacerbated by the influence of the Islamic reform movements of the 19th century that deemed them barely tolerated or even prohibited instruments because of their associations with the pre-Islamic era; this had already gradually reduced their use in the two centuries preceding the modernization of the 20th century. The use of bowed string instruments has also declined significantly in eastern ands Africa. It is only in the North African region that bowed string instruments enjoy continuing popularity. For example, they are still used widely by the rural folk orchestras of Egypt, while in Morocco the rebab has been modernized for classical Arabic music by adopting certain parts of the European fiddle (e.g. tailpiece, bridge, fingerboard). The European fiddle was also adopted wholesale in North Africa; so that European and traditional instruments are now employed simultaneously by many Algerian orchestras. (image 22) It is remarkable that European fiddles are played in a vertical position in this context, a playing technique usual for folk fiddles; the potential playing techniques inherent in the shape of the European fiddle are thus not utilised at all.

Zatvoreni prostori nacije, roda i depresije u romanu Janice Galloway The Trick is to Keep Breathing

The eruption of discourses of devolution and independence in Scotland since the late 1970s has called for an equally passionate discussion and mapping of the Scottish novel as a vibrant representation of an emerging nation. However, when applied uniformly, this approach results in a rather homogeneous concept of Scottishness, thus clearly denying the possibility of individual literary voices. The last section of the paper discusses Galloway’s views on national identity and her own writing. Looking at her interviews and articles over a longer period, we witness a process of self-fashioning and a genuine search for her own identity in the midst of the clichés of Scottishness, the forced dichotomies of Anglo-Scottish incompatibility, condescending and oversimplifying readings of her fiction, as well as her deep commitment to exploring the lives of women. All of these are powerfully silenced by Galloway’s authentic voice as she refuses the labels of nationalism and feminism, considering them equally limiting. Looking towards the diversity of European cultural influences rather than looking forever inwards in search of an imagined national past and imagined community, she embodies a new, open and ever-changing Scottishness. Most importantly, she does not lose her way in the ethereal heights of the national question and literature. That is why she invokes both the necessity and scarcity of love in our lives, while subtly reminding us to keep breathing, and maybe even consider learning to swim.

THE BOUNDARY OF UKRAINIAN RENAISSANCE LITERATURE

The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of European culture on the formation of Ukrainian literature of the 14th-16th centuries. It is emphasized that the paradigm of Ukrainian Renaissance literature is a synthesis of original native ideas and Western European culture. The specific of Ukrainian boundary is represented in the absence of Ukrainian state, confessional pluralism, multilingualism, syncretic character, the popularity of humanism, and anthropocentrism. The identification boundary identity as a key feature of the Ukrainian Renaissance literature is also based on geopolitical location of the country. Methods used in the study: general scientific method (synthesis and generalization), systematic functional, textual method, and systematic descriptive. The comparative-typological and philological methods are used for the analysis of works where the border identity is represented. It is also applied the principles of socio-cultural and historical-typological analysis. The determining factor in the work is the historical and literary approach, which is based on the synthesis of cultural theories and literary analysis.

Особливості виконавського прочитання лютневої музики в гітарній інтерпретації

Research objective – identification of factors determining the signs of authenticity of the sound of lute music of the XV–XVI centuries when performed on a classical guitar, in particular, оf the work is to consider the composer’s lute art of the XV-XVI centuries; generalization and systematization of information about the development of musical instruments of the lute family; identification of factors determining the authenticity of the performance of ancient music. The methodology – of the research is a systematic approach to the performance reading of the Lute music; cultural and musicological methods of analysis of stylistic features of authenticity of performance. The scientific novelty – justification and systematization of the performance complex in the reading of ancient lute music on the example of detailing the features of the fantasy genre of the 16th century. For the first time, ancient music is viewed from the perspective of the natural interaction of compositional and performing arts; the main specific features of the structure, tuning, and timbre qualities of the lute, which form applicative thinking, auditory representations of voicing, methods of working with some technical aspects when playing it on the guitar are highlighted. Conclusions. Problems of preserving, identifying and embodying the main signs of authenticity in the performance of ancient music of the 16th century is relevant, urgent, important and requires a thorough scientific and theoretical study. It has been established that the historical and cultural prerequisites that determined the qualitative development of guitar art are the influence of European culture, in particular, the lute music, which enriched the origins of guitar art and formed the basis of a professional artistic tradition. Interpretive skill, according to the stylistics of the work, is one of the most important aspects of the formation of a school of guitar performance and should be individually directed according to the creative method of the musician, but at the same time maximally reflect the sound and image trends of the era of writing the work. Creative reading of the historical musical heritage for instruments-predecessors of the guitar is one of the important tasks of guitar performance.

Domination of Colonial Law1 in The Middle of Indonesian Moslem Society

This short article intends to explain the major problems faced by Indonesia since been colonized by a foreign nation (in this case mainly the Netherlands) for three and a half centuries with all its consequences, namely the existence of foreign law until now in Indonesia, including the influence of European culture in the life of people who are predominantly muslim with the traditions and culture of course different from the tradition and culture of the colonial. Circumstances should be terminated immediately it can certainly be felt by everyone that upholds and respects the religious laws adopted by the muslim majority of Indonesia’s population. After 70 years of Indonesian independent, largely of colonial law is still exist in the entire territory of Indonesia. Indonesian people seemed no longer care about these issues, or at least only a small part of Indonesian society are seriously thinking about it. And for a great nation like Indonesia should the laws of society are in accordance with the community’s culture, and culture is a culture that is supposed to be created/built on the majority religion in this country embraced the religion of Islam. So, it can be said that the law should be the law of Indonesia are built on the teachings and culture of Islam, but the reality showed that the laws of the Dutch Law such as ‘Wetboek van Straftrecht’, ‘Burgerlijk Wetboek’ and ‘Wetboek van Koophandel’ are still apply today

Religious Print in Settler Australia and Oceania

A distinctive feature of the study of religion in Australia and Oceania concerns the influence of European culture. While often associated with private interiority, the European concept of religion was deeply reliant upon the materiality of printed publication practices. Prominent historians of religion have called for a more detailed evaluation of the impact of religious book forms, but little research has explored this aspect of the Australian case. Settler publications include their early Bible importation, pocket English language hymns and psalters, and Indigenous language Bible translations. As elsewhere in Europe, Australian settlers relied on print to publicize their understanding of religion in their new context. Recovering this legacy not only enriches the cultural history of Australian settler religion, it can also foster new avenues through which to appreciate Australia’s multireligious and Indigenous heritage.

Michal Czajkowski (Sadyk Pasha)’s Projects in The Ottoman Empire (1841-1872)

There should be three periods in the activity of Myhaylo Czajkowski on the Balkan Peninsula. The first is the time when Czajkowski led the Oriental mission of Hotel Lambert in Istanbul. The Concept of the South Slavic Federation, created by Adam Czartoryski, included the liberalization of the policy of the Ottoman Empire in relation to the Christian population, and the promotion of the Uniate movement among the Orthodox. The second period is the time before and immediately after the Crimean War, when Czajkowski became an Ottoman general (Sadyk) and headed the Cossack regiments. At this time, his projects became free from the influences of Czartoryski. An idea emerges about the formation of the Ukrainian-Bessarabian Principality, headed by Hetman. The third period is the 1860s, when Sadyk Pasha contributed to the proclamation of the Bulgarian Autocephalous Church, entered into an open conflict with former colleagues from Hotel Lambert and at the same time began to substantiate the concept of Pan-Slavism. Consequently, the project activity of Mykhaylo Czajkowski deserves our attention, because it played a certain positive role in the Bulgarian revival, sometimes contrary to the intentions of Sadyk Pasha. For the first time, the Bulgarians received patronage in the upper circles of the Ottoman Empire, which was marked primarily by the successful proclamation of the autocephaly of the Bulgarian church in 1870. The Ottoman Cossacks, headed by Czajkowski, positively influenced the processes of national revival in the 1860s. Cossacks laid the foundations of European cultural influence on the population of Bulgarian cities. The Cossacks softened the repressive actions of the Ottoman administration against the insurgent movement in the 1860s. Czajkowski’s literary works in the "Spring of Peoples" introduced the Bulgarian people to the European reader and justified the image of Bulgarian movement for independence.

Dramaturgia Mitopoetică a Lui Blaga Și Rescrierea Canonului Redempţiunii

Abstract Taking in consideration a broad perspective on Romanian literature and the prevalence of the Byzantine religious model, the orthodox background that provides the dichotomie Good-Bad or Beautiful-Ugly as a statement, the present paper analyses Lucian Blaga’s plays (Tulburarea apelor and Meșterul Manole) as an alternative model. The European cultural influences, the Gnostic, the psychoanalytic and aesthetic visions, the religious syncretism, the mythical and poetic, tragic and expresionst dimensions of his works are the premises of considering Blaga a rewriter of the redemption’s canon for his heroes. Firstly, the present paper proposes reading the plays through Goethe’s grind – the two souls theory (that of the day and that of the night) corresponding to the maternal and the paternal images, in relation with Blaga’s biography. On the other hand, taking in consideration Nietzsche’s theory about ancient tragedy, it analyses the rapport between apollonian and dionysian elements, but also the faustization of the heroes. If masculine characters can be related to different faustic steps, the women have both angelic and mephistophelean features – there are correspondents to the Anima, or to the Shadow, in the Jungian archetypes, to the biblical fallen angel or to the ancient Bacchanta. Nona remains a femnine Mephisto or a Sucubous that reshapes the patter of temptention into the erotic seduction while Mira can be seen as a Margareta or even as a Helena, while the church that Manole built on the foundation of her sacrifice can be read in the same grind as Euphorion – the symbol of Beauty and Perfection or of Manole-Faust’s new soul. The question if Nona and Mira can represent (or not) the Eternal Feminin and the salvation of heroes is sill valid. However, describing the Priest and Manole as dramatic (not as tragic heroes, although we can talk about the resurrection of Hybris, Hamartia, Catastrophe and a possible Nemesis), in relation with a non-Crestian, Gnostic, Bogumilic or Pantheist God (a Deus absconditus or Deus otiosus), their redemption is a non-canonic one. Although the answer that the author provides if we are talking about a damnation or about a path to redemption, from the religious point of view, the priest’s salvation is a Pantheist one, while Manole’s redemption can be seen as an aesthetic one. Both parralel with the classic possibilities of saving heroes, alternative models that rewrite the canon of redemption.

European football televisual spectatorship and social identity in Eldoret, Kenya

ABSTRACT In the recent times, European football has become popular in the Sub Saharan world. Most studies have explored what is perceived as the European cultural influence on local societies and cultures and attributed this to the improved global media technology. Some studies have also explored what is described as new and innovative socio-cultural patterns of fandom. This article examines one particular social trend: the construction and performance of elite social identity. It examines the interplay between local processes of performing social identity and European football televisual spectatorship (EFTS). The argument has been made that in Eldoret, EFTS has been appropriated in a local process of social identification. This is part of a long-term ethnographic study but which narrows down to EFTS experience in one place, Sunjeel Restaurant, and examines the experience of a social group that developed in the context EFTS experiences here. The article uses aspects of Lefebvre’s theory of the social production of space and Bourdieu’s concept of cultural fields to describe the social contexts in which this group emerges and how it adapts EFTS to its larger project of performing the identity as members of an elite social category.

Visual state symbols of Japan during the Meiji era

This article is dedicated to the visual state symbols of Japan of the late XIX century (national flag, personal seal of the emperor, order and medal of honor, and military insignia). The aforementioned symbols are viewed as the attributes of the status. First institutionalized graphic symbols in the history of the country have emerged under the influence of European culture and actualized elements of the ”old” Japanese culture, primarily  from the emblems “mon” used to decorate and identify an individual or a family. This article explores the mechanisms of their emergence, as well as the mechanisms of evolution and introduction into the cultural environment based on the material of print mass-market production (postcards and Ukiyo-e woodblock prints). The author’s main contribution consists in comprehensive analysis of the state symbols of Japan of the late XIX century as the attributes of the status, which has been conducted for the first time. The flag, order and emblem of the emperor were used to demonstrate their direct affiliation to the department, as an attribute of a festive event, or indicate their authority. The research also employed postcards as a rarely used source for studying political symbols, or used in the context of ideology alone. The visual images of print production illustrate the reality of using state symbols, as well as within the framework of artistic techniques expand their use as the symbols.

Українське бароко в образотворчому мистецтві – національні символи в контексті європейської культури

The article studies the peculiarities of visual image symbolic type originating in the artistic practice of Ukrainian baroque. It is stated that baroque culture of 17-18 cent. was spreading across Ukrainian territories. Meanwhile Ukrainian art of that period was developing in close interaction with the art of Central Europe, Russia and Balkan countries. Realistic traditions of Western Europe were actively taking roots on Ukrainian territory thus forming the alternative for sacral orthodox art. Symbolic and allegoric type of visual art is mostly used for didactic and educational aims (I. Galyatovsky), narrative ones (I. Bondarevska) and to be more precise and clear it is accompanied by text explanations. Symbolic motives are also represented in virtually all works of H. Skovoroda distinguishing purely symbolic images and fantastic ones. He believes that symbolic imagery is a "picture of wisdom". Emblem-embedded and symbol-embedded books with symbolic and allegoric illustrating engravings become more common and widespread due to the typography development. Publication of "Symbola et Emblemata" and "Iphika Hieropolitica" promotes the usage of these murals, icon paintings, and didactic motives of secular arts. Symbolic and allegoric contents of ethno-national coloring fill the imagery of Ukrainian national icon paintings ("Cossack Mamay", etc.) and symbolically-allegoric compositions of icon paintings ("Jesus Christ the Husbandman", "The Eye of Providence", "Crucifixion with Vine", "Christ in the Winepress", etc.). Also allegoric motives are used in parsuna genre. The article states that, due to the rationalistic tendency influence of European culture, Ukrainian visual art of baroque period moves away from Byzantine canons with their symbolic conventionality thus turning more and more to realistic type of imagery (especially in portrait genre) and at the same time retaining symbolic and allegoric techniques which gained some ethno-national peculiarities.

ПОГРАНИЧНІ ОБРАЗИ РУСІ У САГАХ ПРО ДАВНІ ЧАСИ: ІНТЕРТЕКСТУАЛЬНІ МОТИВИ ЯК ОЗНАКА ІСТОРИЧНОЇ ПАМ’ЯТІ

Fornaldarsagas or legendary sagas is an exemplary source to research the environment of Icelandic authors in the late Medieval time. They combine aspects of fiction writing, historical narrative, and folklore. The plots of these works had functioned in the memory a long time before reaching the pages of books. As a result of this, the meaning of these texts was constantly adapting to new conditions, leaving just some elements of the historic core. These aspects make Fornaldarsagas a valuable source for studying the collective memory and worldview of that time. In the current article, it was attempted to research the perception of Rus and Eastern Europe in the legendary sagas. We tried to reconstruct general conceptions and intellectual tendencies through the prism of the frontier images of these lands. As a result of involving Iceland in the sphere of influence of European culture, local scientists began to use ancient and European sources in constructing their historical narratives. When translating European treatises into their language, the Icelanders not only copied them but substantially supplemented them. Unlike European authors, who had too little empirical information, Icelanders inherited elements of memory from the Migration Period, Viking Age, and Rus-Scandinavian relations of X-XI centuries. Due to this combination of traditions, Eastern Europe received new images which absorbed the symbols of different times and cultures. An eloquent example of such symbiosis is the concept of Svíþjóð hin mikla. This term was supposed to be a translation of the ancient concept of Scythia but acquired a new meaning and turned the place into a «home of the Scandinavian gods». The idea of an Svíþjóð hin mikla became a mixture of ancient concepts and European interest in the East. At the same time, it was associated with Germanic episodes, that influenced the formation of the myth about the eastern origin of the Scandinavian gods. These ideas formed the literary canon, and the authors adhered to it when writing their works. These aspects of Icelandic writing help us better understand the intellectual environment and rethink the historicity of legendary sagas.

. Historiography About the Educational Activities of Jews in Dnipro Ukraine during the 19th – Early 20th centuries

The article deals with historiography about the cultural and educational development of Jews in Dnipro Ukraine during the 19th – early 20th centuries. The formation and functioning of a Jewish educational system in Volhynia during that period, the work of Zhytomyr Rabbinical School and Zhytomyr Jewish Teachers Institute, spiritual-cultural and education activities of Jews in Left-bank Ukraine, Right-bank Ukraine, South-East Ukraine, which was then part of the Russian Empire, and on Western Ukrainian lands of Austria-Hungary are reflected in the historical science. While appreciating the progress of Judaic studies, it should be noted that today this subject needs to be developed further. This is especially important for understanding the key issues of Ukraine’s History and World History. The analysis of a wide range of historical sources, especially archival materials, will contribute to the objective presentation of the history of Jewish community as unique historical and cultural phenomenon and an important part of the Culture of Ukraine. The ideological and political pressure of Soviet era has slowed down Judaic studies, fulfilment of their scientific and practical potential. In the late 1980s there has been an upsurge of interest in the Jewish history. Research studies of Independent Ukraine have contributed to introduction into the scientific activities of new historical sources, developing innovative projects and ideas, improving methodological approaches. The role of Jews in increasing European cultural influences on the Ukrainian lands is a perspective direction of the historical research. In the period of raising the national spirit of Jews during the 19th – early 20th centuries, the number of Jewish students from Ukraine who studied in European universities has increased. Attention needs to be shifted towards an important social function of ethnic research, the results of which foster establishing Ukrainian cultural environment based on tolerance, mutual respect, humanism and cross-cultural dialogue