Cultural Realities Research Articles

Mental Health’s Address to the Challenging Cultural Reality of Malta

Appreciation of society as being the whole made up of so many different parts in terms of groups with various interests, skills and needs is what cultural diversity is about. Culture is defined as the distinctive customs, values, beliefs, knowledge, art and language of a society.
 Multiculturalism has always been embedded with the Maltese reality. However, a steep increase in the country’s population since 2011 may be presenting new realities that can translate into hefty and challenging demands. This review therefore presents the following research-based evidence on how mental health can address this phenomenon, particularly in the case of Malta and similar small countries. In particular, the following aspects were highlighted, namely: cultural safety, holistic health services, multicultural awareness, sensitive lingual expression, community integrity and cultural partnership. Practical recommendations are presented.

Re-examining “the Book” through Ancient Egyptian Tomb Walls

This article investigates how the seminal focus placed on portability as the defining characteristic of the book is erroneous and misguided. Based on Western concepts and early-modern bias that ultimately equates codex to book, the notion of portability is inapplicable to all book cultures and deserves re-examination. By redefining the meaning of the book to be an idea, an idea that can then be transposed textually and/or pictorially onto a substrate, scholars can come to understand how in ancient Egypt wall inscriptions and art were considered books, and how stone was a primary and fundamental book medium. Using Western, modern, and even global examples to explain how the book in its original state is a metaphysical entity, the notion of the book as object is in turn discarded because defining the book by its medium causes numerous restrictions – the object is not the book, merely its carrier. The importance of physical portability therefore becomes replaced in favour of metaphysical portability and its various implications. By using ancient Egyptian tomb walls as a case study, the meaning and boundaries placed on the book in book studies will be reframed and redefined by drawing Egyptian cultural practices, literature, ideologies, and the use of stone to establish examples of non-portable books. Any discussion of ancient book cultures primarily remains focused on papyrus or clay tablets (i.e., portable materials), a focus that skews the reality of ancient book cultures and gives rise to bias due to the neglect of other mediums that were far more important for ideological purposes. Egyptian book culture was, in fact, more than papyrus; a variety of materials were used as substrates, not all of which were portable in the conventional sense, but neither their use nor their significance to ancient Egyptian society should be dismissed.

Reproducing and shifting discourses on indigenous culture: Ethnographic self-descriptions of the Kola Sámi

The article considers ethnographic self-descriptions as a cultural form in which indigenous authors conceptualise their culture in the shifting social contexts. Ethnographic selfdescriptions present (a) the transformation of the oral-discursive practices of indigenous culture into text; (b) the interpretation of the scientific versions of culture by indigenous authors. The author focuses on how Sámi culture is conceptualized in the text and as the written text by Sámi authors, taking into account the scientific descriptions of their culture and non-discursive cultural forms (such as ethnographic collections). In the texts of indigenous authors, anthropological versions of culture become a source for reproducing some patterns of culture’s conceptualization as relevant to a particular tradition in social sciences. Thus, ethnographic self-descriptions are interpreted in terms of intertextuality with an emphasis on relations between oral and written discourse, academic and indigenous discourse, discursive and non-discursive practices. Texts as a part of cultural reality or as elements of social events have causal effects which contribute to changes in the perception of Sámi culture and in the ways it is represented in the indigenous perspective, i.e., texts participate in the reproduction, creation and modification of numerous discourses on the Kola Sámi culture. In the ethnographic self-description of many Kola Sámi, ‘culture’ can be recontextualized by actors. Moreover, positions and identity of the observer (the author) and the observed (indigenous people) are partly connected, which implies a change in the epistemological status of the indigenous discourse. The processual approach to the cultural conceptualization and the focus on indigenous insights presented in the ethnographic self-descriptions constitute the methodological basis for examining some contemporary cultural trends of the Kola Sámi (Russia). The author analyses the published texts of the contemporary Kola Sámi authors, who are not professional anthropologists.

“Español Moderno” for Chinese: The Influence of Colonial Thought on Spanish-American Cultural Discourse

During two years of analysis of thesis projects for the graduation of bachelor’s degree in spanish language, deficiencies have been found in the students of the Spanish faculty of Hebei International Studies University, China, to assume and reproduce the idea of Spanish America as a heterogeneous conglomerate, therefore it was determined to study the idea of cultural diversity disseminated by the books for the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language in China. In this case, the Español Moderno 1 Student's Book and the Español Moderno 1 Reading Books were selected because they are the most widely used in universities and constitute the first learning section. Software-assisted qualitative analysis was used, establishing a coding system for the cultural information that made it possible to identify the cultural information with which the idea of the Hispanic American subject and society is constructed. Together with the ethnographic work with the students, it was concluded that the cultural information is dispersed, incoherent and superficial. It offers a vision of Hispanic America equated to Spain, understanding this as a region of Christian society, Spanish-speaking population and Latin culture with peculiar details and touristic landscapes. The book offers an inconsistent cultural education environment, which puts students at risk of making cultural mistakes during immersion in any Spanish-speaking cultural context. The Hispanic American cultural reality needs to be presented in a respectful and accurate manner. This implies decolonizing the perception and understanding Hispanic America from Hispanic America and not through colonial filters that seek to perpetuate a constricted vision, fertilized by ethnocentric analysis and denial of reality.

REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN AND OF THEIR ROLES IN THE WORLD OF THE ROMANIAN VILLAGE. PICTURE POSTCARDS FROM THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY AND THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY

This study aims to explore the visual discourse about women and their roles in the Romanian village, a discourse created by the picture postcards from the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. To reach this aim, we considered the following objectives: to realise a typology of the used research material, to identify the main representations of women, to analyse the relationship between the representations of women and the other represented elements (men, children, rural landscapes, households, tools, etc.), to discuss the main features of the visual discourse about the women from the rural area, for the respective period, based on the previous identification of the elements that became iconic through repeated representation. We used a critical visual methodology and discourse analysis to explore the picture postcards that represented women from the Romanian village, underlining the connection between their meanings and the cultural reality. Our findings are useful for similar research on gender and its visual construction from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.

Social capital of Kodzko County implications for the security of the region and its inhabitants

For more than two decades, the social capital theory has attracted interest in the fields of sociology, political science and economics. Its various theoretical and empirical approaches invariably explain new and often hidden phenomena arising at the interface between institutional society and the economy. Its essence is trust built on relationships between people and between people and institutions that are the pillars for shaping security, in the broadest sense of the term, as well as the feeling of security among citizens. Social capital is also a scientific category requiring constant reconstruction and permanent attention in relation to changing social, cultural, political and economic realities. The primary (cognitive) aim of this article is to identify the characteristics of the social capital of Kodzko County, its peculiarities and implications for the security of the region and its citizens (not only in the social dimension).

Urbanonyms in Macao

The goal of this paper is to offer an analysis of urban place names (“urbanonyms”) in Macao, China. This city has a centuries-long tradition of multi-cultural and linguistic integration, with Chinese and Portuguese representing the two oldest linguistic and cultural realities. Due to the considerable growth of Macao as a global commercial hub, English has also become an emergent lingua franca in this city’s territory and society. However, gazetteers, maps, and other documents reporting Macanese place names include names in Portuguese and Chinese: English names have a restricted use and status. Such a situation naturally leads to questions that pertain to the linguistic properties of these names, and to possible asymmetries in naming practices. The paper thus aims to present a detailed analysis of the Portuguese and Chinese urbanonyms and their linguistic (e.g., grammatical, lexical, and etymological) aspects, and of the emerging English toponyms. The analysis is based on data extraction and triangulation from multiple on-line and off-line gazetteers. Via this analysis, the paper also aims to account for how divergences and convergences reflect Macao’s complex toponomastic history and the role of toponomastics in multilingual contexts.

METHODICAL PRINCIPLES OF PREPARATION OF FUTURE TEACHERS-MUSICIANS TO LEAD FOLKLORE GROUPS

The purpose of the article is to reveal the methodological principles of training future teachers of musical art to lead folk music groups.Methodology. The main theoretical provisions of this article are based on the leading principles of the cultural approach. Such research methods as the method of artistic analysis of folklore sources, art history and pedagogical literature, the method of theoretical generalizations and conclusions are used in the investigation.Scientific novelty. The article highlights the problem of continuity of national traditions, transmission of aesthetic ideals and self-awareness of the people in modern Ukrainian society.The author developed the issue of folklore as a means of personality formation, considered folk songs as a model of aesthetic taste, high moral qualities and artistic experience of Ukrainians, as the embodiment of the national identity of the people. Attention is drawn to the originality, uniqueness and versatility of Ukrainian folk music.The article explains the methodical principles of training future teachers of musical art to lead folklore groups, which consist in: cultivating Ukrainian national identity in working with students, creative productivity of performing activities and artistic integration in the design and implementation of an artistic idea. Special attention is paid to the methods of interaction between the manager and the members of the artistic team as the basis of effective creative work.Conclusions. National folklore reveals the dynamism and multi-layered existence of Ukrainians, attests to the ways of understanding the artistic and aesthetic values of the past through the prism of the perception of modern cultural realities. The training of future teachers-musicians is interpreted by us, first of all, as a process of gaining experience of communication with folk art in the postmodern era based on the current methodical principles of interaction of student youth with samples of Ukrainian folk art.

Stylistic directions of accordion-bayan music in modern art

The article demonstrates that modern button accordion culture is an important part of the cultural paradigm of society, spiritual self-development and self-expression of peoples and nationalities. The ontological status of bayan and accordion performance is highlighted in the context of various styles, determined by the specifics of national cultural landscapes and historical realities.

Evaluation innovation in Africa: Towards indigenously responsive evaluation (IRE) philosophies, methods and practices in Ghana

Evaluation within an indigenous society is a social activity. Thus, it requires both tangible and intangible or hidden factors such as cultural values, norms, communal relational structures, power dynamics, attitudes, consensus-building, community aspirations, empowerment and other practical knowledge to develop an inclusive evaluation framework. Utilizing a culturally responsive evaluation (CRE) approach, this study examined evaluative instincts rooted in indigenous values, relational patterns, knowledge systems and other cultural realities. Indigenous evaluation impulse exists in native ideas, social structures and other cultural realities but could these indigenous evaluative impulses augment and shape contemporary evaluation philosophies, approaches and practices in Ghana? The study observed that there are several tangible and intangible evaluative dimensions that are deeply-rooted in cultural values, maxims, norms and other social patterns within the indigenous communities. Consequently, comparable dimensions could be advanced and established in the present evaluation research to add further depth and rigour to the study in this field.

REALITY AS AN OBJECT OF TRANSLATION (ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE NOVEL "WAY OF ABAI")

The novel "The Way of Abai" is a unique novel that revealed to the Chinese reader the life and culture of the Kazakh people. The purpose of this article is to consider realities as an object of translation on the example of Mukhtar Auezov's priceless novel "The Way of Abai". The analysis of the main methods of translating the realities of Kazakh culture into Chinese is of practical importance for further study within the framework of the theory of translation, as well as such sciences as philology, cultural studies and literary criticism. In order to study this topic, the methods of systemic and comparative analysis, as well as the method of generalization and abstraction, were used. As a result of the analysis, it was revealed that when translating these realities into Chinese, the translator used such translation methods as descriptive translation, transliteration, word substitution and word omission. The research materials can be used as additional literature in the disciplines related to the teaching of translation, languages ​​and literature.

Criminological Review On The Impact Of The Abuse Of Alcoholic Beverages That Trigger Criminal Actions In The City Of Gorontalo

The purpose of this research is to discuss the impact of alcohol abuse that triggers criminal acts in the city of Gorontalo . The objectives of this research are: to find out what are the factors and impacts of alcohol abuse in Gorontalo City.This study uses empirical legal research methods. Empirical legal study itself is a study that views law as a reality, including social reality, cultural reality, and empirical studies of the world. This research took place at the Gorontalo City Police. The results obtained from this study are that the prevalence of alcohol abuse in Gorontalo City occurs due to internal factors such as age, gender, individual norms (personality), education, psychology and others, as well as external factors such as the environment and friendships. The influence of alcoholic beverages can lead to a crime.

Consensual sexual selfies: everyday exposure in teen girl media

ABSTRACT Despite its everydayness, girls’ digital exposure is often conceived as scandalous. Concerns about the potential of leaked nudes to “ruin” a girl’s life are part of a long history of moral panics about girls and technology that mask fears about the public expression of female sexuality. Much teen media, however, counters this panic by exploring the social and technological dynamics at play in practices of sending sexual selfies. This article analyzes teen magazines and TV series to map the alternative mainstream discourse through which girls might frame their practices of self-exposure. Teen media incorporates the exposure built into everyday technological interactions in ways that allow girls’ consensual sexuality to exist, visibly, as everyday. Magazines like Rookie and Teen Vogue and series like Riverdale and Pretty Little Liars employ such discourses in ways that often protect the hegemony of white femininity, even as they defend girls’ right to privacy and expose the unique consequences of exposure queer girls. Teen media begins to offer alternative discourses of young women’s sexual selfies that are aligned with the social and technological realities of digital culture, and which girls can mobilize to deconstruct exclusionary norms of privacy and visibility.

Ертөнцийн үндэстний зураглал (Монгол, орос, англи хэлний идээ, ундааны нэрийн баримтаар зэрэгцүүлэх нь)

Language is a reflection of reality, preservation, and promotion of national culture. The concept of vocabulary is an integral part of cognition and a result of human cognition and connected to accumulated comprehensive knowledge. Therefore, lexicons can be an informative source of a certain country. Every nation has its environment to live in, style to use something, experience, culture, and tradition, and they have their own words, and phrases to express them. It’s obvious that people observe what is around them and recognize the objects that they have seen before. As a result of this, citizens of any nation mark them with words and give names on what they have learned. Thus, for centuries it has been a national feature in the public consciousness, and the phenomenon has retained as certain patterns and images. These retained images, patterns, ways of life, events, and historical chronological orders are absorbed in languages, and speakers, representatives of any countries express them in their own tongue phonology, dialects, and language. In this article, we tried to explain the concept of global image through the comparison of names of three different types of food and beverages in the examples of Mongolian, Russian, and English languages.

Nigerian Film Industry and Screenplay Text: Historical and Linguo-Socio-Cultural Symbiosis

The issue of the development of the Nigerian film industry and the specifics of the screenplay text as a reflection of the linguocultural picture of the world is considered. The question is raised about identifying the linguo-socio-cultural features of the screenplay text formed during the contact interaction of British English and the indigenous languages and cultures of Nigeria. It is proved that the text of the Nigerian film script has all the key textual categories, like the texts of British and American films, but in the refraction of the Nigerian linguistic culture. The scientific novelty of the study is determined by the derived new properties of the Nigerian screenplay text in the process of linguocultural adaptation of British English to the realities of Nigerian culture. The author’s development of a model of linguocultural adaptation of the Nigerian screenplay text is presented and its unique properties at the level of vocabulary and grammar are revealed. Particular attention is paid to the aspect of the sociolinguistic differentiation of the Nigerian society and the identification of errors in the dialogic communication of the characters depending on their belonging to the sociolinguistic type — acrolect, mesolect, basilect. The results obtained can be used for researchers in the field of the theory of language contacts in the field of communicative syntax.

The People Divided by the Border (Comparative Characteristics of Germans in Russia and Kazakhstan)

Germans who previously lived in the same state were separated by state borders after the collapse of the USSR. Living in newly independent States launched the processes of ethnic self-determination and adaptation to new socio-cultural and political conditions. Based on the results of ethnosociological surveys of the German population in Russia and Kazakhstan, we give a comparative characteristic of the identity of Germans in these countries. In general, the identity of Germans in the post-Soviet space has many common features, which are determined by the common historical fate, cultural and linguistic unity, the presence of support programs from Germany and the active activity of public organizations. The differences in the identity of the Germans of Russia and Kazakhstan are related to the peculiarities of national policy, including historical memory and the state language. The development of the identity of Kazakh Germans takes place in somewhat more difficult conditions, since in Kazakhstan the number of the German population has decreased almost fivefold over the years of independence (while the emigration potential is still high), and there are no areas of compact residence of Germans. In the sphere of ethno-linguistic processes, we have noted the presence of bilingualism and trilingualism of Germans in Russia and Kazakhstan and the decline in the popularity of learning German in school institutions. The special, specific features of this new identity are connected with the political and cultural realities of the new States.

Research by practice in the alpine environment: discovering the activity of MonViso Institute in Ostana. Dialogue with Tobias Luthe

New ideas often come from external influences, different paths that are essential for developing an economic model that’s not based on repeating the past but on three pillars: cultural traditions, natural environment, and new ways of thinking. This happens at MonViso Institute, in the Western Italian Alps, where a group of researchers, designers and entrepreneurs has been involved in place-based research into transitions towards sustainability, regenerative design and architecture, and building a deep relationship with the social, cultural and natural environment. The Institute’s activities involve education in new technologies, climate change, permaculture, the circularity of materials, design with bio-composites, regional economics, which is embedded in outdoor projects in cooperation with European universities and other environment-oriented institutes. Together with the cultural and social realities that have been locally developing during the last decades, MonViso Institute takes part in the regeneration process of the alpine village of Ostana (CN), by representing a significant, concrete programme that can be out-scaled to describe re-inhabitation strategies that may interest several mountain territories.

Dialektika Politik dan Agama Kerajaan Bima Tahun 1775-1882

Not much effort has been made to explore Bima as a historical node within the framework of Islamic epistemology in Nusantara. In fact, the area that was formerly known as the Bima Kingdom became one of the important trading ports that connected the spice shipping routes to the east of the Nusantara. Because of its strategic location and its significance in the connection point of spice shipping in the Nusantara, Bima in the end can not only be read as an economic reality, but also a cultural reality which is a reflection, for example, how religion and politics are dialectic and bargain each other. The book “Iman dan Diplomasi: Serpihan Sejarah Kerajaan Bima” is one that seeks to reveal how this dynamic took place. Through a review of three important scripts, the book describes several important historical facts, not only related to the Bima Kingdom in particular, but also the big agenda of consolidating Islam as a doctrine with factual reality that occurred in the Nusantara from the 18th to 19th centuries.

Book Review: John Asimakopoulos, The Political Economy of the Spectacle and Postmodern Caste.

Dr. John Asimakopoulos has crafted a fascinating study into the larger debate regarding social structure within the context of postmodern culture. During the latter half of the Twentieth century and into this third decade of the Twenty-First century, there has been passionate debate across disciplines on the reality of postmodern culture. Jürgen Habermas and Jean-François Lyotard argued about modernity’s continued existence with Habermas, as well as notable scholars such as Anthony Giddens, declaring modernity an “unfinished project;” and drawing from Eighteenth and Nineteenth century German Idealism, especially Georg Hegel, as a “juggernaut” and that we have no choice but to allow modernity to steamroll over anyone and everyone until it plays itself out. We have Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault debating the notion of “human nature” from Modernist and Poststructuralist (respectively) perspectives; we have the Sokal Affair when a mathematician was able to publish a joke paper in a postmodern journal deconstructing the notion of the atom. We had books telling us to “forget Foucault” or to “forget Baudrillard.” Though the larger debate in academia was never resolved, few scholars discuss it now. Looking at the history of the overall debate, it would be easy to conclude that scholars ended at an impasse and that these lines of theoretical thought are intellectual dead ends.

The industrial past as a tool of possibility: Schooling and social class in a former coalfield community

This article presents data from ethnographic research carried out at Lillydown Primary, a local authority school in a former coalmining community in South Yorkshire. Complicating Avery Gordon’s concept of haunting, it argues that in order to begin refashioning typical accounts of schooling for the working class, we must reckon with the fullness of ghosts that remain to haunt the fabric of the present. The central argument of the article is that historical, place-based pedagogies and performances work to deliver a more relevant curriculum and experience of schooling that begin to ‘fit’ with pupils’ histories, culture and lived realities. It illustrates how phantomic rhythms of Lillydown’s industrial past have profound social and cultural effects on schooling which can, at least sometimes, encouragingly shape pupils’ experiences of education. It begins to demonstrate how Lillydown Primary is a place of unsettledness, where the something-to-be-done is seething into the present, but ghostly matters still conjure as they are not yet complete. The article argues that there are further spectral potentialities to be reckoned with that could go some way towards forging more critical spaces and pedagogies.