Signs Of Identity Research Articles

Polish Street Namesakes. General Characteristics and Preliminary Outline for Analysing Urban Space Names

The article addresses the issue of commemorative street names as carriers of memory and signs of national identity. The overall collection of Polish streets, gathered in the TERYT database of the Central Statistical Office, is taken into consideration. The specificity of commemorative names and the essence of commemoration as a social phenomenon are discussed. The article presents a list of the 100 most common street namesakes in Poland, along with their most general characteristics (typology of namesakes) linked to numerical data. The final section sketchily outlines the research potential based on such a database, focused on unveiling significantaspects of Polish culture and value patterns.

Soldiers and Prisoners in Motion in Mesopotamian Iconography during the Early Bronze Age

Military images of the ancient Near East during the Early Bronze Age are characterized by one of their main features: the serial reproduction of soldiers and prisoners, side by side, the former clearly identifiable by the visual signs of power they bear and the latter by their humiliation. These images are usually and almost naturally conceived as the ideological prerogative of city-states in conflict for territorial domination or as signs of visual identity intended to reinforce the powers that be. However, the end of the Early Bronze Age is marked by the hegemony of the Akkadian dynasty and the iconographic changes that it generated. While strongly maintaining the military iconographic theme in its visual discourse, it broke with the motif of static parades of prisoners and introduced many details intended to clearly identify the protagonists, the enemies, or the environment of the battles. It could represent a transition from a discourse based on evocative repetition in order to present an ideal to one founded on detailed narration in order to assert the authenticity of an event. This paper investigates the phenomenon of repetition through soldiers and prisoners on images. Analyzing the message lying behind the series of hindered prisoners and battalions of soldiers also underlines the way the change of iconographic discourse during the Akkadian period can be understood, particularly given that the power of the Akkadian dynasty mainly rested on its military victories.

Dialogic learning in jesuit education

In the present work it is affirmed that dialogical learning is a good contribution to the specifications of the Jesuit pedagogy. This analysis is relevant specially in times of educational reform, not only at state and global level, but also at the level of the Education sector of the Society of Jesus (EDUCSI) that aims at adapting teaching to the demands of the world and current students while maintaining its Ignatian identity signs as the main axis of its educational project. For this, a theoretical review of the links between the Ignatian educational literature characteristic of the Jesuits and dialogic learning has been carried out. The most important documents of the Jesuit educational mission, from 1549 up to the present, have been analysed and have been related to the dialogical principles, which are the foundation and support of the educational actions that this conception of learning proposes.

THALASSOCRATIC TENDENCIES AND THEIR POSSIBLE INFLUENCE ON THE FORMATION OF IDENTITY AMONG RESIDENTS OF THE FAR EASTERN CITIES OF POST-SOVIET RUSSIA

The article is the result of an analysis of factors in the formation of collective identity at points of economic growth. Thalassocratic tendencies that determine the identity of residents of port cities are of particular interest for socio-political research. The Russian Federation has access to sea communications from the north, south, west and east. An assessment of thalassocratic trends in the USA, Canada, Germany and Turkey allows us to assume that the unified identity that emerged during the Soviet period will not retain its integrity. The political activity of the population in the port cities of the Russian Far East will take on different characteristics than in the cities of the continental part. The work used: a comparative method necessary to identify qualitative differences between local and regional thalassocratic and tellurocratic identities. Particular attention is paid to aspects that determine the presence, possible manifestation and dynamics of the formation of signs of thalassocratic identity in the south of the Russian Far East.

Визуализация представлений о душе в украшениях национальных костюмов саха (якутов) и тувинцев

Introduction. The cultural heritages of the Sakha (Yakut) and the Tuvan are distinguished by a similarity of basic worldview ideas pertaining to the structure of the Universe, multi-storeyedness of each of the Three Worlds, the pantheon of deities, etc. Goals. The article aims to interpret semantics of ethnic jewelry as a visual narrative articulating the ideas of individual soul in traditional Sakha and Tuvan cultures. To facilitate this, the paper shall summarize the available descriptions of these ideas from ethnographic material, identify some facts confirming jewelry used to serve as markers of soul, consider semantics of traditional jewelry signs. The study hypothesizes as follows: when it comes to soul visualizations, folklore sources manifest repeated indications localizing one of the three souls (aorta, blood, belt, etc.) ― hence, the other two must also have some certain locations and related beliefs, too. Methods. With due regard of the dynamics in religious and aesthetic preferences, the employed interdisciplinary and comparative historical approaches comprise the structural/functional, interpretative, and axiological methods. The method of mosaic reconstruction proves as instrumental in revealing jewelry symbolism. Results. The paper confirms adornments (jewelry pieces) act as means to visualize some valuable worldviews, ideas of human soul and its whereabouts, prestige and behavioral norms. The former are defined as utmost identity signs for an inhabitant of the Middle World that serve as markers and protective amulets for each of the three human souls, also viewed as mediators between the sacred and profane worlds, triggers in ritual communication, and social status indicators. Conclusions. Being a universal form, circle (silver disk, bead, infinity knot, and button) denotes the place and function of each soul. For instance, the air one of the Sakha and the middle one of the Tuvan are placed in the head and identified with head adornments (jewelry pieces). According to Sakha beliefs, the maternal soul is localized in the mediastinum (pulse and blood ― heart and liver), while Tuvans place soul one into the navel. Yakut women of fertile age tend to mark this soul with solar breast jewelry, with no identified symbolic parallels in the Tuvan costume. Yakuts believe the third earthly soul be indicated with a belt buckle and dwell in the navel, while the Tuvan tradition says the good soul dwells in the belt. So, the Yakut have retained somewhat more archaic version of the symbolic corpus. And the differences are largely determined by the late influence of Manchu-Chinese culture and Buddhism on worldviews of southern Tuvans.

Batik Dermayon: Expression of Femininity in North Coast of Java

To date, Javanese-Indonesian coastal women have only been part of the batik craft industry, but their strategic roles and expressions have never been disclosed or cared. Whereas the feminine side and the aesthetic symbolic adaptation of Batik-crafter women are very important issues in the creation of the Indonesian cultural repertoire. This study succeeded in explaining the visual identity signs and aesthetic structures described by the community of the crafter woman in the Paoman Village, as well as revealing the meaning of the Indramayu written batik motif as a sign in coastal culture.

Произношение и идентичность: вокалические и консонантные тенденции в северных диалектах Англии

The paper presents the results of a complex phonetic experiment including the auditory and acoustic types of analysis of unprepared speech produced by the residents of northern cities of England (Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle). The aim of the study is to identify markers of regional and social identity of the informants on the segmental level of the language system. The work’s value lies in the fact that pro-nunciation is viewed as a means of conscious linguistic self-identification for native speakers, who attach great significance to accent as a source of regional and cultural pride. The data obtained allow the researcher to assert that the North of England is a dialectal unity, opposed to both - Received Pronunciation and other regional accents. From this perspective, the identified supra-dialect vowel features may serve as signs of the regional identity of Northern Englishmen, while consonant features in their speech may act as markers of social identity, indirectly indicating the socio-economic status of the speaker.

The effect of brand names and logos’ figurativeness on memory: An experimental approach

This paper explores the opposition between abstract and figurative names and logos, considered together in a single stimulus. We created three experimental scenarios of fictitious names and logos, ranging from very abstract to very figurative stimuli. Findings show that figurativeness, and organicity as its extreme form, are key determinants of cognitive responses to names and logos. However, our most relevant finding is the crucial importance of the interaction between the figurativeness of the name and the logo. Results show that semantic repetition is beneficial for creating recall and generating associations, and semantic dispersion is advantageous for ensuring recognition. Nevertheless, there are exceptions. The originality of this paper lies in the fact that it allows to say that figurativeness is not a sacrosanct solution to good name and logo performance, it largely depends on the type of interaction between these two central brand identity signs.

Cultural identity in the architecture of individual dwelling in the conditions of industrialization

The development of fast construction methods that allow to speed up and cheapen the procedure of housing construction will form conditions for simplifying mortgage programs by financial institutions. Despite the positive aspects of industrialization, this process is characterized by signs of depersonalization and loss of regional authenticity in architecture. This leads to the erosion of national mentality and loss of cultural identity. The search for signs of cultural identity of the Russian individual dwelling is based on the volumetric and spatial analysis of the architecture of the traditional Russian dwelling house of the North-Western regions of the Russian Federation. Since this area corresponds to the third and fourth climatic zone, in which most of the territory of the Russian Federation is located. As a result of the analysis, the characteristic planning features of individual residential houses formed under the influence of natural and climatic conditions of the region are determined and the stable, not changing in time signs of identity are revealed. As a result of the study, the parameters of the optimal percentage ratio of warm and cold zones in the volume of the house for the formation of a sustainably developing system of national housing, and the stylistic and typological characteristics formed on their basis.

Wąż Miedziany i rzekoma nobilitacja. Przyczynek do biografii Tomasza Tretera

The Brazen Serpent and the Alleged Ennoblement: A Case for Tomasz Treter’s Biography: The article discusses signs of identity (burgher arms) of Tomasz Treter (Treterus, 1547–1610). Treter was a trusted secretary of Cardinal Stanisław Hozjusz (Hosius), but also a draughtsman, a painter, an engraver, a designer of monuments and prints, and a Neo-Latin poet. The texts focuses on Treter’s non-armorial seals, depicting a shield with a winged snake twisted around a cross (the Brazen Serpent) and on Treter’s two supralibros (one with the burgher arms and the other displaying an impresa). The paper also analyses emblematic compositions in Symbolica vitae Christi meditatio, a volume of meditations composed by Treter. These sources are used to undermine the belief that Treter was ennobled by Pope Gregory XIII and that he used the Boncompagni’s coat of arms (Draco).

Ćirilica i srpska kultura

The paper speaks about the place and importance of the Serbian Cyrillic in Serbian culture. The Cyrillic with the Serbian language is undoubtedly among the most important identity signs, which proves that it is also necessary to assign such importance to it when devising national and cultural policies. It is exactly due to such identity importance that the Cyrillic was suppressed from the Serbian nation in the past and it continued in the 20th century, especially after the Second World War. Even today, after the breakup of the Serbian-Croatian language unity, many powers have an organized way of trying to prevent the return of the Cyrillic to its place. That speaks about its importance for the Serbian cultural and national identity.

Signs of identity in the Plutarchian Lives of Aristides, Themistocles and Cimon

This paper deals with three pairs of Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, whose Greek protagonists played a central role in the Hellenic triumph over the Persians: Aristides, Themistocles, and Cimon. We will analyze the Lives of these three Greeks who contributed decisively to cementing the Athenian identity, in relation to their lineage, education, character, virtues and death, in contrast to the Romans placed in parallel with them (Marcus Cato, Camillus and Lucullus), in order to observe if in these aspects there are differentiating traits between Greeks and Romans.

From the Editors

From the Editors

Cereals and Fruits of the Philistines: Signs of Territorial Identity and Regional Involvement

ABSTRACT The present study explores patterns in choices and use of staple cereals and fruits through the Late Bronze Age and Iron Ages to address the level of Philistine “commonality” with other populations in the region. Analysis of the relevant archaeobotanical data from 34 settlements shows that the Philistines exhibit cultural continuity in patterns of plant use with Late Bronze Age southern Canaan, and with the Shephelah region especially. The study also unravels, for the first time, differences in choice and use of crops between the Philistines and their neighbors during the early Iron Age. In addition, analysis of the spatial spread of date palm fruits in the region shows their localized presence and limited exploitation in the Iron Age southern Levant. The three main results build a holistic picture of the conservation of the Canaanite economy in a “refugium” in Philistia that later spread into Judah and Israel.

Identity Cards, Semiotic Instability, and Signs of State Recognition for Indonesian Warias

ABSTRACTFollowing the authoritarian New Order in Indonesia (1965–1998) the state‐issued identity card was transformed into a symbol available for reproduction by ordinary citizens. One Indonesian transgender population known as warias used the card to engage with the terms of recognition offered by the state. In 2014, warias in Yogyakarta made organizational membership cards that closely mimicked but did not copy the visual form of the original. Warias efforts to expand the state's bureaucratic form through the manipulation of the symbolic and material qualities of cards raised the possibility that the state did not hold a monopoly over powers of recognition.

Solidarity happens: Corriente Sindical de Izquierdas, radical trade unionism in democratic Asturias

ABSTRACT In the aftermath of the Franco dictatorship, a pole of workers’ militancy was forged in the city of Gijón around a critical current of Comisiones Obreras, the main Spanish trade union, called the Corriente de Izquierdas (Left Current). This group of workers was the driving force behind some of the most important conflicts of the new democracy, including a strike of strict solidarity that lasted almost three months. Expelled from their union in 1982, the Corriente Sindical de Izquierdas became the main reference point for radical trade unionism in Asturias. Despite its small size and limited presence, for forty years it has been at the forefront of many of the most notorious and agonising conflicts against the deindustrialisation of the city and the region, with trade union methods characterised by their radicalism, but above all, by their strong commitment to solidarity. Such has been its trade union history that the organisation has earned a notable place in Asturian and even Spanish popular culture. Here we will review its evolution as a trade union and what have been the signs of identity that have made it possible for an admittedly small organisation to accumulate such remarkable social prominence and symbolic capital.

Tourism, commodification of Dongba script and perceptions of the Naxi minority in the linguistic landscape of Lijiang: a diachronic perspective

Abstract Ongoing debates in the field of sociolinguistics are centred around the implications of the commodification of the languages and cultures of ethnic minorities. Previous research has adopted synchronic approaches to describing how ideologies of tourist consumption shape language choices in the linguistic landscape. However, such snapshot analyses have proved to be inadequate in revealing changes in the linguistic landscape over time, especially the nuanced perceptions of minority communities who are subjects to ethnic tourism. This paper examines the use of Dongba script in the linguistic landscape of the Naxi minority in Lijiang under the conditions of commodification in tourism. A diachronic comparison of photographic data collected in 2016 and 2021 revealed the increasing visibility and prominence of Dongba script on public signs; interviews with ordinary inhabitants, tourism industry practitioners and Dongba priests within the Naxi community further demonstrated the evolving attitudes towards linguistic commodification, from hesitation and objection to integration and creative accommodation. The study provides new insights into how a diachronic perspective can help reveal the dynamic between packaging languages as commodities and retaining signs of identity, religion and culture.

Dominasi Tanda Identitas dalam Foto Esai Sepak Bola di Museum Olahraga

The National Sports Museum was formed and intended for the public to learn about sports development in Indonesia. This research has the objectives, namely; to explain what the national football identity signs are in the football essay photo at the national sports museum and what football identity is dominantly present in the photo essay, and the meaning of its appearance. This study uses Roland Barthes' semiotics method to analyze the identity of the signs and meanings contained in football essay photos at the national sports museum. The dominant national football identity presented by the museum is football as a recreational sport and as a professional sport slightly raised due to the unstable development of Indonesian football achievements and tends to decline.

Es un mal castellano cuando decimos ‘su’: Language instruction, raciolinguistic ideologies and study abroad in Peru

This article explores how two Quechua language teachers negotiated and reproduced raciolinguistic ideologies in the classroom during a Spanish immersion study abroad program that focused on indigenous communities in Peru. Specifically, it examines the ways that they conveyed the sociolinguistic appropriateness of racialized “double-possessive” constructions from the local variety of Spanish to a cohort of U.S. undergraduate students in Cuzco. An analysis of ethnographic data reveals that both instructors drew learners’ attention to these constructions, depicted them as signs of an incompetent Quechua-speaking identity, and affirmed the normative appropriateness of racially-unmarked sociolinguistic variants within the host society. These findings suggest that racialized language attitudes can underlie the ways that learners are taught appropriate target language practices during study abroad. This study illustrates how language instructors and study abroad programs can foster racialized ideologies of language that students may internalize as part of their development of sociolinguistic competence.

The Sign-Symbolic Level of Urban Identity of the Inhabitants of Industrial Cities of the Southern Urals

The article deals with the comprehension of the phenomenon of urban identity in general and its sign-symbolic level in particular. By urban identity in the context of the presented scientific text, we mean a set of authentic features and characteristics, inherent in a particular city, that perform an attributive function, allowing to differentiate it from other cities; the process and result of a person’s identification with the city, based on the acceptance of its identity, on the emotional entry into the space of its material and sign-symbolic environment. The sign-symbolic level of urban identity assumes personal mastering of the city’s semiotic environment, its inclusion in the space of the event and emotional experience of its inhabitants, transformation of the objects of the city’s sign-symbolic space into a set of “memory places”.The author of the article conducted a culturological study of the urban identity of the residents of industrial cities of the Southern Urals (semi-formalized interviewing method; the array of respondents — 270 people), including its sign-symbolic component. Its specific features are culturocentricity (predominance of man-made sign-symbolic objects over natural and mixed ones); commemorativeness (dominance of memorial objects — memorial sculpture and sculptural compositions, museums, ethnoparks, historical buildings, other monuments of historical and cultural heritage — over objects of other types); retro-orientation (predominance of objects temporally associated with the past, mainly with the Soviet period); monotony (limited range of objects chosen by residents of one city); syncretism (identity of objects aimed at different audiences); collectivism (total predominance of objects — signs of group identity); centrality (centripetal localization of objects, their location mainly in the city center). The results of the conducted research allow us to speak, with a significant degree of confidence, about the very clearly manifested features of the Southern Urals cities inhabitants’ perception of their own small Homeland, about the problematic and strengths of the existing urban identity, the vectors of its correction and improvement.