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Reimagining Europe comprises a series of contributions which address, in various ways, the relationship between Europe and continental philosophy/phenomenology. Europe is in crisis: a crisis that no longer designates a moment of decision, a critical point between a before and an after, but a state, a permanent mode of being, a constant emergency. At this juncture of Europe, the aporia of language confronts the aporia of history. We cannot speak, we must speak, we shall speak. As such, the contributions all engage with the idea that the question'what is Europe?'must measure up a series of questions, namely: what was it to be? What does it mean to initiate and sustain a project, such as Europe, if only at times, after the fact? The questions of internal and external borders, of homogeneity and coherence, identity and equality, legitimacy and rights, democracy and representation can only be raised insofar as the question of Europe, its destiny, and destination, is raised as a whole.

The Czechoslovak academic discipline called ‘Ethnography and Folklore Studies'was impacted and influenced by the daily realities of state socialism in 1969–1989. This book examines the role of the planned economy, Marxist–Leninist ideology, disciplinary hierarchies and clientelist networks, ultimately showing how state socialist features together brought about the discipline's epistemic stalling. It offers a fresh perspective on the long-standing debates purporting to capture the differences between the Central and Eastern European tradition of ethnology and Western sociocultural anthropology.

In the midst of a contentious atmosphere of the interwar period, the far-eastern province of Subcarpathian Rus'attracted the personal curiosity and professional attention of Russian ethnographer and theoretician Petr Bogatyrev and Czech journalist-writer Ivan Olbracht. Both traveled extensively in the region and immersed themselves deeply in the life and culture of the local residents, Carpatho-Rusyns, and Hasidic Jews. Witnesses to Interwar Subcarpathian Rus': The Sojourns of Petr Bogatyrev and Ivan Olbracht explores for the first time in English the legacy they bequeathed in their respective work: Bogatyrev as an apolitical ethnographic collector and theoretician and Olbracht as a passionately committed Communist whose reports and brilliant stories from the region, including Nikola Šuhaj, Brigand, and The Sorrowful Eyes of Hannah Karadjic capture a glimpse of a world destined to change radically as a result of the ravages of war.

No one in Czech politics or culture could match the international stature of Václav Havel at the time of his death in 2011. In the years since his passing, his legacy has only grown, as developments in the Czech Republic and elsewhere around the world continue to show the importance of his work and writing against a range of political and social ills, from autocratic brutality to messianic populism. This book looks squarely at the heart of Havel's legacy: the rich corpus of texts he left behind. It analyzes the meanings of key concepts in Havel's core vocabulary: truth, power, civil society, home, appeal, indifference, hotspot, theatre, prison, and responsibility. Where do these concepts appear in Havel's oeuvre? What part do they play in his larger intellectual project? How might we understand Havel's focus on these concepts as a centerpiece of his contribution to contemporary thought? How does Havel's particular perspective on the meaning of these concepts speak to us in the here and now? The ten contributors use a variety of methodological tools to examine the meaning of these concepts, drawing on a diversity of disciplines: political science and political philosophy, historical and cultural analysis, discourse/textual analysis, and linguistic-corpus analysis.

This book on Jewish culture and literature focuses on the “quiet” decades of the nineteenth century, a scarcely written-about period of time in Bohemian Jewish history. Using a myriad of sources, including travelers'accounts, poems, essays, short stories, guides, and newspaper articles, the volume explores Jewish expression, Jewish-Czech relations, and the changing attitudes toward Jews between the 1820s and 1880s. It offers close readings of writers like Karel Havlíček Borovský, Ján Kollár, Siegfried Kapper, and Jan Neruda, as well as lesser-known authors and sources. Combining skillful sustained analysis, judicious argumentation, and elegant writing, the book is a truly enriching reading experience.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1969.

This edited volume asks what earlier and contemporary cemeteries and memorials can tell us about manifestations of past times. How do they testify of contradictory dimensions of memorial behavior: from commemoration or celebration to forgetting? The chapters in this volume address the work of cultural remembrance connected mostly to various minority groups in East Central Europe while enquiring into tangible and intangible intertwining spheres―visible and hidden signs, traces and lifeworlds of memories, emotions, stories, and historical interpretations.

Třetí, přepracované a doplněné vydání Husitské revoluce uznávaného medievisty Františka Šmahela se do rukou čtenářů dostává ve dvou svazcích a v nové grafické podobě. První díl tohoto titulu objasňuje kořeny českého reformního hnutí a jeho vývoj počínaje novými duchovními proudy v době panování císaře Karla IV. přes kazatelské působení i kostnické mučednictví Jana Husa až po společenské otřesy na konci vlády Václava IV.

How did the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia approach non-heterosexuality? How did young girls and boys come to realize their queer desires and identities within a state known for repressing individuality? What did they do with that self-awareness—and later on, as adults, what strategies did they employ in their everyday dealings with a state that defined homosexuality as a medical diagnosis? Queer Encounters with Communist Power answers these questions as it interweaves groundbreaking queer oral history with meticulous archival research into the discourses on homosexuality and transsexuality in Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1989.

This book considers the state of Czech democracy, following the rise of authoritarian regimes in Poland and Hungary and the ascent of billionaire oligarch Andrej Babiš to the office of prime minister of the Czech Republic, leading to concerns about conflict of interest. The authors argue that civic values, such as tolerance, respect for the equality of people, and readiness to play by the rules of the political game, are key factors in determining whether the Czech Republic will maintain its democracy in the coming years. The book employs a broad perspective, bringing together insights from political science, sociology, cultural studies, and other disciplines to analyse changes in the democracy of the Czech Republic since 1989, taking into consideration various dimensions of civic values, including politics, gender inequality, film, and the media.

Effectively communicate Christ across CulturesThe gospel message transcends cultures, but human communication does not. In Transforming Communication missionary and professor Vee J. D-Davidson provides principles for the intercultural communication of Christ.Using her twenty-five-plus years of experience teaching as a Westerner in Asia as a starting point, Davidson provides transferable principles that encourage awareness of context-specific issues and that see opportunities for intercultural communication as wholly unique opportunities, regardless of any perceived communication barriers. Readers from multiple different cultures will be able to apply the principles presented by use of relevant examples, illustrations, and enlightening insights provided from a wide range of Global South and Global North multicultural and intercultural perspectives.Transforming Communication offers practical principles to encourage and challenge Christian readers to build relationships that might well require engaging with issues that bring them out of their comfort zone but, the book also offers insights and encouraging devotional nuggets that feed into a triad of knowledge-impartation, self-examination and challenge, along with spiritual enrichment for the task.

“Regions of memory” are a scale of social and cultural memory that reaches above the national, yet remains narrower than the global or universal. The chapters of this volume analyze transnational constellations of memory across and between several geographical areas, exploring historical, political and cultural interactions between societies. Such a perspective enables a more diverse field of possible comparisons in memory studies, studying a variety of global memory regions in parallel. Moreover, it reveals lesser-known vectors and mechanisms of memory travel, such as across Cold War battle lines, across the Indian Ocean, or between Southeast Asia and western Europe.Chapters 1 and 6 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Spring Man: A Belief Legend between Folklore and Popular Culture deconstructs the nationalistic myth of Spring Man that was created after the Second World War in visual culture and literature and presents his original form as an ambiguous, ghostly denizen of oral culture. Petr Janeček analyzes the archetypal character, social context, and cultural significance of this fascinating phenomenon with the help of dozens of accounts provided by period eyewitnesses, oral narratives, and other sources. At the same time, the author illustrates the international origin of the tales in the originally British migratory legend of Spring-heeled Jack that reaches back to the second-third of the nineteenth century, and Janeček also draws parallels between the Czech myth of Spring Man and similar urban phantom narratives popular in the 1910s Russia, 1940s United States and Slovakia, and 1950s Germany, as well as other parts of the world.

Franz Baermann Steiner (1909-52) provided the vital link between the intellectual culture of central Europe and the Oxford Institute of Anthropology in its post-Second World War years. This book demonstrates his quiet influence within anthropology, which has extended from Mary Douglas to David Graeber, and how his remarkable poetry reflected profoundly on the slavery and murder of the Shoah, an event which he escaped from. Steiner's concerns including inter-disciplinarity, genre, refugees and exile, colonialism and violence, and the sources of European anthropology speak to contemporary concerns more directly now than at any time since his early death.

U příležitosti životního jubilea prof. PhDr. Ivana Hlaváčka, CSc., se 25 domácích i zahraničních badatelů zaměřilo na zkoumání různých forem panovnické reprezentace v písemné kultuře ve středověku. První blok byl věnován každodennosti a formám reprezentace na panovnickém dvoře, přičemž téma bylo sledováno jak ve vazbě na konkrétní vládce, tak i v širším komparativním rámci. Další oddíl se zaměřil na vnímání královského majestátu optikou současných i následujících generací, a to zejména pohledem autorů narativní, naučné či kazatelské literatury. Do poslední části byly zahrnuty příspěvky věnované různým oblastem panovnické správy a problémům úředních písemností ve středověku.

How do we think about ourselves and others? Part one of the book examines the notion of human universals in cultural anthropology, psychology, linguistics, and in cognitive sciences. This part is focused on the issue of examining the processes of conceptualization, categorization and classification of human types and identities and it examines the role of psychological essentialism in these processes. It also focuses on the topic of religiously interpreted identities. Part two examines religiosity in modern Czech society. Contemporary Czech religiosity or lack thereof has been interpreted narrowly from the perspective of socially and culturally conceptualized factors. Other possible factors have been neglected – for example neuropsychological aspects. The World Religions Paradigm that underpins teaching about religions in Czech education system, is composed of reified concepts of religious traditions. This paradigm provides a basis for essentialised conceptualization of religiously interpreted identities in contemporary Czech society.

This book is a collection of articles by anthropologists and social scientists concerned with gendered labour, care, intimacy and sexuality, in relation to mobility and the hardening of borders in Europe. Interrogating the relation between physical, geopolitical borders and ideological, conceptual boundaries, it offers a range of vivid and original ethnographic case studies that will capture the imagination of anyone interested in gendered migration, policies of inclusion and exclusion, and regulation of reproduction and intimacy.The book presents ethnographic and phenomenological discussions of people's changing lives as they cross borders, how people transgress and reshape moral boundaries of proper gender and kinship behaviour, and moral economies of intimacy and sexuality. It also focuses on migrants'navigation of social and financial services in their destination countries, putting questions about rights and limitations on citizenship at the core.

This book provides an indispensable resource for high school and college students interested in the history and current status of gender identity formation and maintenance and how it impacts LGBTQ rights throughout the world.Gender and Identity around the World explores a variety of gender and LGBTQ experiences and issues in countries from all the world's regions. Guided by more than 50 recognized academic experts, readers will examine how gender and LGBTQ identities are developed, fought for, perceived, and policed in countries as diverse as France, Brazil, Russia, Jordan, Iraq, and China.Each chapter opens with a general introduction to a country or group of countries and flows into a discussion of gender and identity in terms of culture, education, family life, health and wellness, law, work, and activism in that region of the world. A section on contemporary issues specific to the country or group of countries follows this discussion.

An outspoken opponent of pro-Russian, authoritarian, and far-right streams in contemporary Czech society, Martin C. Putna received a great deal of media attention when he ironically dedicated the Czech edition of Russ–Ukraine–Russia to Miloš Zeman—the pro-Russian president of the Czech Republic. This sense of irony, combined with an extraordinary breadth of scholarly knowledge, infuses Putna's book. Examining key points in Russian cultural and spiritual history, Russ–Ukraine–Russia is essential reading for those wishing to understand the current state of Russia and Ukraine—the so-called heir to an “alternative Russia.” Putna uses literary and artistic works to offer a rich analysis of Russia as a cultural and religious phenomenon: tracing its development from the arrival of the Greeks in prehistoric Crimea to its invasion by “little green men” in 2014; explaining the cultural importance in Russ of the Vikings as well as Pussy Riot; exploring central Russian figures from St. Vladimir the Great to Vladimir Putin. Unique in its postcolonial perspective, this is not merely a history of Russia or of Russian religion. This book presents Russia as a complex mesh of national, religious, and cultural (especially countercultural) traditions—with strong German, Mongol, Jewish, Catholic, Polish, and Lithuanian influences—a force responsible for creating what we identify as Eastern Europe.

This book contributes to the discussion about the instrumental use of history. Itanalyses two examples of public festivities related to the events and legacy of the finalstage of World War II. The first of these commemoration events is the Liberation Festivalin Pilsen, a public event celebrating the liberation of Pilsen in 1945. The secondevent is the celebration of the Slovak National Uprising anniversary, held annuallyin Banská Bystrica. The analysis focuses on the manner in which public commemorationsof historical events are used and instrumentalised by contemporary politicalelites. Prior to the political and social relevance of the analysed events, the narrativesthey produce are transcending into the cultural and commercial spheres.

The devilish has long been integral to myths, legends, and folklore, firmly located in the relationships between good and evil, and selves and others. But how are ideas of evil constructed in current times and framed by contemporary social discourses? Modern Folk Devils builds on and works with Stanley Cohen's theory on folk devils and moral panics to discuss the constructions of evil. The authors present an array of case-studies that illustrate how the notion of folk devils nowadays comes into play and animates ideas of otherness and evil throughout the world. Examining current fears and perceived threats, this volume investigates and analyzes how and why these devils are constructed. The chapters discuss how the devilish may take on many different forms: sometimes they exist only as a potential threat, other times they are a single individual or phenomenon or a visible group, such as refugees, technocrats, Roma, hipsters, LGBT groups, and rightwing politicians. Folk devils themselves are also given a voice to offer an essential complementary perspective on how panics become exaggerated, facts distorted, and problems acutely angled. Bringing together researchers from anthropology, sociology, political studies, ethnology, and criminology, the contributions examine cases from across the world spanning from Europe to Asia and Oceania.

The anti-liberal turn in Central Europe aroused a lively scholarly discussion to which this book wishes to contribute by providing a novel perspective. The recent illiberal upsurge is often ascribed to weakly rooted liberalism in the context of an unfinished transition, or, conversely, to the completion of the transition process in which populists turn against their erstwhile mentors from the West. Without separating Central Europe from global trends, the authors of this book look at a change in the political dynamics of post-accession Central Europe through the prism of the culture wars. Conflicts over values, symbols and social norms have marked the 2010s in strikingly similar ways across Central Europe. To some extent they replace the older, socioeconomic right versus left cleavage, and, at the same time, they highlight topics like gender, identity, sovereignty and globalization. Every Central European country has undergone deeply polarizing episodes in the aftermath of the 2015 refugee crisis, and some even before. In certain nations, these are linked to a strong national-conservative project, to religion or to traumas of the past, but there is no simple pattern. The book studies culturalized politics in a broadly conceived Central Europe - Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and Croatia - and shows the various forms that culture wars have taken in the 2010s as well as their underlying logic.

This edited book examines names and naming policies, trends and practices in a variety of multicultural contexts across America, Europe, Africa and Asia. In the first part of the book, the authors take theoretical and practical approaches to the study of names and naming in these settings, exploring legal, societal, political and other factors. In the second part of the book, the authors explore ways in which names mirror and contribute to the construction of identity in areas defined by multiculturalism. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach to onomastics, and it will be of interest to scholars working across a number of fields, including linguistics, sociology, anthropology, politics, geography, history, religion and cultural studies.

Communism in twentieth-century Europe is predominantly narrated as a totalitarian movement and/or regime. This book aims to go beyond this narrative and provide an alternative framework to describe the communist past. This reframing is possible thanks to the concepts of generation and gender, which are used in the book as analytical categories in an intersectional overlap. The publication covers twentieth-century Poland, Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic, the Soviet Union/Russia, former Yugoslavia, Turkish communities in West Germany, Italy, and Cuba (as a comparative point of reference). It provides a theoretical frame and overview chapters on several important gender and generation narratives about communism, anticommunism, and postcommunism. Its starting point is the belief that although methodological reflection on communism, as well as on generations and gender, is conducted extensively in contemporary research, the overlapping of these three terms is still rare. The main focus in the first part is on methodological issues. The second part features studies which depict the possibility of generational-gender interpretations of history. The third part is informed by biographical perspectives. The last part shows how the problem of generations and gender is staged via the medium of literature and how it can be narrated.

This book addresses the issues of memory (a more suitable word would be Marianne Hirsh's term of postmemory) of the Holocaust among young Poles, the attitudes towards Jews and the Holocaust in the comparative context of educational developments in other countries. The term “Jews” is, as rightly noted Joanna Tokarska-Bakir (2010) a decontextualized term used here in the meaning of Antoni Sułek (2010) as a collective “symbolic” entity. The focus was on education (transmitting values), attitudinal changes and actions undertaken to preserve (or counteract) the memory of Jews and their culture in contemporary Poland. The study to which the book primarly refers was conducted in 2008 and was a second study on a national representative sample of Polish adolescents after the first one undertaken in 1998. The data may seem remote from the current political situation of stepping back from the tendency to increase education about the Holocaust which dominated after 1989 and especially between 2000 and 2005, nonetheless they present trends and outcomes of specific educational interventions which are universal and may set examples for various geopolitical contexts. The focus of this research was not primarily on the politics of remembrance, which often takes a national approach, although state initiatives are also brought to the attention of the reader, but rather on grassroots action, often initiated by local civil society organizations (NGOs) or individual teachers and/or students. This study has attempted to discover the place that Jews have (or do not have) in the culture of memory in Poland, where there lived the largest Jewish community in pre-war Europe, more than 90% of which was murdered during the Holocaust. The challenge was to show the diversity of phenomena aimed at integrating Jewish history and culture into national culture, including areas of extracurricular education, often against mainstream educational policy, bearing in mind that the Jews currently living in Poland are also, in many cases, active partners in various public initiatives. It is rare to find in-depth empirical research investigating the ensemble of areas of memory construction and the attitudes of youth as an ensemble, including the evaluation of actions (programmes of non-governmental organisations and school projects) in the field of education, particularly with reference to the long-term effects of educational programmes. The assumption prior to this project was that the asking of questions appearing during this research would stimulate further studies. The book is divided into three parts: Memory, Attitudes and Actions. All three parts of the book, although aimed at analysing an ongoing process of reconstructing and deconstructing memory of the Holocaust in post-2000 Poland, including the dynamics of the attitudes of Polish youth toward Jews, the Shoah and memory of the Shoah, are grounded in different theories and were inspired by various concepts. The assumption prior to the study was that this complex process of attitudinal change cannot be interpreted and explained within the framework on one single academic discipline or one theory. Education and the cultural studies definitely played a significant role in exploring initiatives undertaken to research, study and commemorate the Holocaust and the remnants of the rich Jewish culture in Poland, but the sociology, anthropology and psychology also played a part in helping to see this process from various angles.

How do we think about ourselves and others? Part one of the book examines the notion of human universals in cultural anthropology, psychology, linguistics, and in cognitive sciences. This part is focused on the issue of examining the processes of conceptualization, categorization and classification of human types and identities and it examines the role of psychological essentialism in these processes. It also focuses on the topic of religiously interpreted identities. Part two examines religiosity in modern Czech society. Contemporary Czech religiosity or lack thereof has been interpreted narrowly from the perspective of socially and culturally conceptualized factors. Other possible factors have been neglected – for example neuropsychological aspects. The World Religions Paradigm that underpins teaching about religions in Czech education system, is composed of reified concepts of religious traditions. This paradigm provides a basis for essentialised conceptualization of religiously interpreted identities in contemporary Czech society.Jakub Havlíček is Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociologyand Cultural Anthropology, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic.

This book examines external perceptions of the Franco-German relationship, both from a historical perspective and as a driving force for regional integration. By providing various country and regional studies, it analyses the various types of perception and self-perception in several regions around the globe. Here, Franco-German cooperation serves as a mirror in which third-party countries view their own situation, today and in the future. The contributions address the questions of if and how the Franco-German reconciliation and cooperation is perceived as a role model for other regions, especially for the reconciliation of other inter-state and international conflicts. A concluding chapter highlights the divergences and convergences between the respective conflicts, and proposes recommendations for actors involved in diplomacy and international relations.The book is intended to provide scientific support for the implementation of the Franco-German Aachen Treaty of January 2019. It will appeal to scholars in political science and cultural studies, and to anyone interested in learning more about the Franco-German relationship and on external perspectives on it.

A transforming society undergoes changes on many levels. The main two of these are changes in the structures and culture of society. But how do these large changes affect the lives of individuals and small communities? This book, Teachers on the Waves of Transformation, attempts to aid in the understanding of theses questions by means of exploratory research at two schools in a small town in central Bohemia. The scholar followed the fates of two generations of teachers at both schools. In interviews with the teachers, management and also the parents, she focuses on the areas of relationships, values, shared stories and even symbolic and ritual worlds, the culture of the schools.

The essays collected in this volume form a multifaceted discourse on religious, philosophical, historical, ethnocultural and sociocultural, literary and linguistic issues. A multicultural approach to the problem of the soul allows the presentation of it on a microscale, focused on national and regional specificity, as well as on the macroscale, oriented toward universal values which can be observed in the cultures of peoples distant from each other in both time and space. The book consists of 28 chapters, addressing the fundamental themes of human existence, which find expression in cultural texts in both colloquial and artistic language, and which have a prominent place in anthropological, psychological, metaphysical and theological debates.

The study of Czechoslovak women refugees in Britain is noticeably missing from current research and Anglo-Czechoslovak historiography. This book explores the diverse experiences, dilemmas and contributions to Britain of these women within a socio-political context, commencing with the 1938 Munich Agreement that precipitated exile. An essential difference between this and many other studies of exile is the focus on nationality (Czechoslovak) and gender (women), rather than either element alone. Moreover, archival research is complemented by oral interviews with former refugees, presenting a more detailed and nuanced approach to their experiences, including wartime roles in the armed services, Czechoslovak Red Cross, women's organizations and patriotic cultural societies.

This publication aims to provide a cultural analysis of the university environment, where the main analytical tool is the concept of the “myth,” both as a cultural phenomenon linking academia's present with its past, and as a Jungian archetype. The authors conceive of myths as fi rmly tied to symbols which abound in education, rituals, hierarchical symbols and various traditions. This book presents to English readers the university culture of the so-called Humboldtian academic tradition, while focusing on the Czech higher education system in comparison to those of˛Germany, Poland, Austria and other countries. Of significant importance are the characteristics of˛Central European universities whose development in the 20th century was marked by discontinuity. This book mainly looks at academic culture from the position of the nonmetropolitan universities that emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries. Although the authors have conceived of this book historically, they are also interested in current issues, particularly the dispute between the Humboldtian ideal and “academic capitalism,” the search for university unity within the framework of pressures to diversify, trends which weaken university freedoms, and the various forms of university administration. The authors have tried to inspire debate not only within historical circles, but also amongst those interested across the university community.

The twelve essays in this book – by scholars from the U.S., France, Germany, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic – offer new transnational perspectives in transatlantic historical, literary, and cultural studies. They explore the special role of American and European intellectuals as agents of transatlantic cultural transfer, and examine the mechanisms and instruments through which artists, writers and intellectuals communicated across oceans and national borders, in the half century between 1914 and 1964. Their focus is on transatlantic networks and the instruments of culture through which such networks become operative as sites of cross-cultural exchange, circulation and interaction: magazines, cafés, publishing houses, book fairs, agents, translators, and mediators – and last but not least, transatlantic personal friendships. Contending that the dynamics of transatlantic cultural transfer need to be understood as reciprocal and multi-directional, they also exemplify the shift within transatlantic intellectual history from a traditional concern with European-U.S. relations to a multidirectional, triangular exploration of cultural, political and intellectual relations between Europe, the United States, and Latin America.

Elections are still often equated with modern democracy, which they are supposed to constitute by way of realizing bourgeois equality. By contrast, elections in pre-modern times are regarded as a mere ritual celebrated exclusively by a privileged male minority in order to cement a patronally prescribed corporate hierarchy. This volume shows that elections in different forms of society serve as a political tool par excellence for establishing the legitimacy of distributive justice in accessing offices and resources and for collective agreement concerning suitable candidates for them. One focus of the volume is on the early modern urban societies of Italy, whose oligarchic tendencies are paradoxically expressed in their intense preoccupation with electoral procedures which were therefore regarded as exemplary in their time.

As dusk fell on a misty evening in 1521, Martin Luther - hiding from his enemies at Wartburg Castle - found himself seemingly tormented by demons hurling walnuts at his bedroom window. In a fit of rage, the great reformer threw at the Devil the inkwell from which he was preparing his colossal translation of the Bible. A belief - like Luther's - in the supernatural, and in black magic, has been central to European cultural life for 3000 years. From the Salem witch trials to the macabre novels of Dennis Wheatley; from the sadistic persecution of eccentric village women to the seductive sorceresses of TV's Charmed; and from Derek Jarman's punk film Jubilee to Ken Russell's The Devils, John Callow brings the twilight world of the witch, mage and necromancer to vivid and fascinating life. He takes us into a shadowy landscape where, in an age before modern drugs, the onset of sudden illness was readily explained by malevolent spellcasting. And where dark, winding country lanes could terrify by night, as the hoot of an owl or shriek of a fox became the desolate cries of unseen spirits.Witchcraft has profoundly shaped the western imagination, and endures in the forms of modern-day Wicca and paganism.Embracing the Darkness is an enthralling account of this fascinating aspect of the western cultural experience.

Moldova is a new nation-state with a long history. Despite only recently gaining independence, following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Moldova's roots stretch all the way back to the Principality of Moldavia, established in 1359. After centuries toiling under Ottoman control, and latterly Russian Imperial rule, the Moldovans briefly tasted independence in the early twentieth century, before being annexed by the Soviet Union. In recent times, the Transnistrian Dispute has once again threatened the sovereignty, and indeed the independence, of Moldova and this conflict remains unresolved today.For the first time in English, this book places the problems of contemporary Moldova in a long-term historical perspective. It argues that the Moldovans'complex relations with the Russians and the West are not simply the product of the Soviet era but have their roots in earlier centuries. Haynes contends that the Moldovan lands, and Moldovan identity and culture, have long been contested: by the Roman and Byzantine Empires of antiquity, by the expanding Hungarian and Polish-Lithuanian kingdoms in the Middle Ages, by the Ottoman, Habsburg, Russian and Soviet empires in more recent centuries, and by the Romanian state. The book provides a political and cultural history of the growth and development of the medieval Principality of Moldova, the Principality's partition and Russian rule in Bessarabia from 1812, Bessarabia under Romanian rule in the inter-war period, Soviet Moldova and the independent Republic of Moldova.

This book tackles different aspects of the adaptive and transformative process in communist and post-communist systems in Eastern Europe, offering competing models, which locate the explanatory variable in different places and account for the unfolding of change in different ways.

From political novels to surrealist poetry and censored rock and roll, Czech underground culture of the latter twentieth century displayed an astonishing, and unheralded, variety. This fascinating exploration of that underground movement—the historical, sociological,and psychological background that gave rise to it; the literature, music, and arts that comprised it; and its morerecent incorporation into the mainstream—draws on the voices of scholars and critics who themselves played an integral role in generating it. Featuring the writings of Czech poet Ivan Martin Jirous, philosopher-poet Egon Bondy, and writer Jáchym Topol, and Canadian expat and translator Paul Wilson—many of which have never before been available in English—as well as an expanded bibliography reflecting advances in scholarship. This second edition is both a work of literature and an eye-opening volume of criticism.

In 1961, John F. Kennedy referred to the Papuans as “living, as it were, in the Stone Age.” For the most part, politicians and scholars have since learned not to call people “primitive,” but when it comes to the Papuans, the Stone-Age stain persists and for decades has been used to justify denying their basic rights. Why has this fantasy held such a tight grip on the imagination of journalists, policy-makers, and the public at large? Living in the Stone Age answers this question by following the adventures of officials sent to the New Guinea highlands in the 1930s to establish a foothold for Dutch colonialism. These officials became deeply dependent on the good graces of their would-be Papuan subjects, who were their hosts, guides, and, in some cases, friends. Danilyn Rutherford shows how, to preserve their sense of racial superiority, these officials imagined that they were traveling in the Stone Age—a parallel reality where their own impotence was a reasonable response to otherworldly conditions rather than a sign of ignorance or weakness. Thus, Rutherford shows, was born a colonialist ideology. Living in the Stone Age is a call to write the history of colonialism differently, as a tale of weakness not strength. It will change the way readers think about cultural contact, colonial fantasies of domination, and the role of anthropology in the postcolonial world.

In recent years, the Leveson Inquiry in Great Britain, as well as the EU High-Level Group on Media Freedom and Pluralism, have stirred heated debates about media accountability and media self-regulation across Europe. How responsible are journalists? How well-developed are infrastructures of media self-regulation in the different European countries? How much commitment to media accountability is there in the media industry – and how actively do media users become involved in the process of media criticism via social media?With contributions from leading scholars in the field of journalism and mass communication, this handbook brings together reports on the status quo of media accountability in all EU members states as well as key countries close to Europe, such as Turkey and Israel. Each chapter provides an up-to-date overview of media accountability structures as well as a synopsis of relevant research, exploring the role of media accountability instruments in each national setting, including both media self-regulation (such as codes of ethics, press councils, ombudspersons) and new instruments that involve audiences and stakeholder groups (such as media blogs and user comment systems).A theoretically informed, cross-national comparative analysis of the state of media accountability in contemporary Europe, this handbook constitutes an invaluable basis for further research and policy-making and will appeal to students and scholars of media studies and journalism, as well as policy-makers and practitioners.

How is Europe identified in narratives from its eastern periphery? This is the core question of this volume. Its chapters map narratives of Europe rooted in East Europe, as they circulate in phenomenological philosophy, news journalism, social movements, literary texts, visual art and popular music. Whereas debate and research on European identity is normally conducted in self-congratulatory terms by core institutions in the centre, the focus here is on how Europeanness is narrated in one of its most dynamic regions: Eastern Europe. A closer scrutiny of how such East European narratives critically rework inherited conceptions reveals a range of strategies for interpreting European identity in this transitory phase of history. Open Access PDF of this title is available from OAPEN, at this link Europe Faces Europe.

The submitted publication reflects our intention to tackle themes which in Ethnology teaching may, in our opinion, survive generational and social changes on the threshold of the millennium. Our ideas, intentions and uncertainties are concentrated in the vision of themes which are included in the publication “Ethnology for the 21st Century. Bases and Prospects”. The monograph is compiled as a team work written by university teachers, Ph.D. students and experts from academic institutions, who take part in lectures, about the future direction in ethnology teaching at universities.

This book draws on wide range of inspirations to provide a well-balanced picture of the popular culture and subcultures of Czech post-socialism. What were the continuities and discontinuities of the post-socialist popular culture, mentalities and society during the period of late state socialism? What were the different mechanisms of ‘creating the Other'in popular culture and subcultures? This volume shows the diverse trajectories of the late socialist (and older national) cultural practices and the related set of values and beliefs in new transitory circumstances. Whereas many scholars emphasize the tendency to sustain in a more or less adapted form under the new circumstances, the chapters and case studies of this book demonstrate a slightly different, more nuanced development.

Which theoretical and methodological approaches of contemporary cultural criticism resonate within the field of disability studies? What can cultural studies gain by incorporating disability more fully into its toolbox for critical analysis? Culture - Theory - Disability features contributions by leading international cultural disability studies scholars which are complemented with a diverse range of responses from across the humanities spectrum. This essential volume encourages the problematization of disability in connection with critical theories of literary and cultural representation, aesthetics, politics, science and technology, sociology, and philosophy. It includes essays by Lennard J. Davis, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Dan Goodley, Robert McRuer and Margrit Shildrick.

What compels a person to strap a vest loaded with explosives onto his body and blow himself up in a crowded street? Scholars have answered this question by focusing on the pathology of the “terrorist mind” or the “brainwashing” practices of terrorist organizations. In Caravan of Martyrs, David Edwards argues that we need to understand the rise of suicide bombing in relation to the cultural beliefs and ritual practices associated with sacrifice. Before the war in Afghanistan began, the sacrificial killing of a sheep demonstrated a tribe's desire for peace. After the Soviet invasion of 1979, as thousands of people were killed, sacrifice took on new meanings. The dead were venerated as martyrs, but this informal conferral of status on the casualties of war soon became the foundation for a cult of martyrs exploited by political leaders for their own advantage. This first repurposing of the machinery of sacrifice set in motion a process of mutation that would lead nineteen Arabs who had received their training in Afghanistan to hijack airplanes on September 11 and that would in time transform what began as a cult of martyrs created by a small group of Afghan jihadis into the transnational scattering of suicide bombers that haunts our world today. Drawing on years of research in the region, Edwards traces the transformation of sacrifice using a wide range of sources, including the early poetry of jihad, illustrated martyr magazines, school primers and legal handbooks, martyr hagiographies, videos produced by suicide bombers, the manual of ritual instructions used by the 9/11 hijackers, and Facebook posts through which contemporary “Talifans” promote the virtues of self-destruction.

The 15 essays collected here focus on literary and cultural relations between Germany or Austria on the one hand and the neighbouring countries of eastern and southern Europe on the other, with particular reference to the period since the Wende, but also with a glance back to the period of German division. Topics include the overarching theme of psychological, political, historical and geographical boundaries and the perspective offered by German writers from both East and West on Poland, Russia and neighbouring countries. Equally important to the contributors are specific authors who have crossed national and cultural borders, such as Libuše Moníková, Irena Brežna, Richard Wagner and Hans Bergel. The role of memory, Vergangenheit, time and space are examined in the context of works by Anna Mitgutsch, W G Sebald, Christoph Ransmayr and Elisabeth Reichart, and the reception of the theories of Pierre Nora in the German-speaking countries. The re-emergence of the Right in politics, drama and film forms a further dimension explored in these essays. Neighbours and Strangers will be of interest to students and scholars working on contemporary German and Austrian culture.

This is the first volume on the studies of queer identities in Europe to adopt a strong focus on the history of the Baltic region among other countries in Central and East Europe. It unites work by researchers of different European countries that deals with various representations of the queer culture over a period of more than one hundred years. A significant part of the book is dedicated to belletristics, with the contributors offering readings of it with knowledge about ideas circulating in public discourse that have been influential for new discoveries in history, art history, culture studies, communication studies, theology, and narratology, among other fields.

Ethnic American Food Today introduces readers to the myriad ethnic food cultures in the U.S. today. Entries are organized alphabetically by nation and present the background and history of each food culture along with explorations of the place of that food in mainstream American society today. Many of the entries draw upon ethnographic research and personal experience, giving insights into the meanings of various ethnic food traditions as well as into what, how, and why people of different ethnicities are actually eating today. The entries look at foodways—the network of activities surrounding food itself—as well as the beliefs and aesthetics surrounding that food, and the changes that have occurred over time and place. They also address stereotypes of that food culture and the culture's influence on American eating habits and menus, describing foodways practices in both private and public contexts, such as restaurants, groceries, social organizations, and the contemporary world of culinary arts. Recipes of representative or iconic dishes are included. This timely two-volume encyclopedia addresses the complexity—and richness—of both ethnicity and food in America today.

This extensive work explores the changing world of religions, faiths and practices. It discusses a broad range of issues and phenomena that are related to religion, including nature, ethics, secularization, gender and identity. Broadening the context, it studies the interrelation between religion and other fields, including education, business, economics and law. The book presents a vast array of examples to illustrate the changes that have taken place and have led to a new world map of religions.Beginning with an introduction of the concept of the “changing world religion map”, the book first focuses on nature, ethics and the environment. It examines humankind's eternal search for the sacred, and discusses the emergence of “green” religion as a theme that cuts across many faiths. Next, the book turns to the theme of the pilgrimage, illustrated by many examples from all parts of the world. In its discussion of the interrelation between religion and education, it looks at therole of missionary movements. It explains the relationship between religion, business, economics and law by means of a discussion of legal and moral frameworks, and the financial and business issues of religious organizations. The next part of the book explores the many “new faces” that are part of the religious landscape and culture of the Global North (Europe, Russia, Australia and New Zealand, the U.S. and Canada) and the Global South (Latin America, Africa and Asia). It does so by looking at specific population movements, diasporas, and the impact of globalization. The volume next turns to secularization as both a phenomenon occurring in the Global religious North, and as an emerging and distinguishing feature in the metropolitan, cosmopolitan and gateway cities and regions in the Global South. The final part of the book explores the changing world of religion in regards to gender and identity issues, the political/religious nexus, and the new worlds associated with the virtual technologies and visual media.

While sectarian violence has greatly diminished on the streets of Belfast and Derry, proxy battles over the right to define Northern Ireland's identity through its new symbolic landscapes continue. Offering a detailed ethnographic account of Northern Ireland's post-conflict visual transformation, this book examines the official effort to produce new civic images against a backdrop of ongoing political and social struggle. Interviews with politicians, policymakers, community leaders, cultural workers, and residents shed light on the deeply contested nature of seemingly harmonized urban landscapes in societies undergoing radical structural change. Here, the public art process serves as a vital means to understanding the wider politics of a transforming public sphere in an age of globalization and transnational connectivity.