Search

This paper examines the Talyshi people, an Iranian ethnic group divided by the Araxes River between Azerbaijan and Iran. The division, a result of the Russo-Persian War (1804-1813), placed the Talyshis within two distinct political and cultural paradigms. The northern Talyshis, under the successive rule of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and Azerbaijan, were confronted with a Turkish political and cultural orientation that contrasted with their Iranian linguistic and cultural heritage. This orientation led to significant shifts in identity, with the Talyshis becoming minorities within a Turkic-speaking, Turkish-oriented Azerbaijan. Southern Talyshis who remained in Iran experienced a more consistent cultural development within the Iranian paradigm, despite political changes. This study examines the impact of these divisions on Talyshi identity, language preservation and socio-cultural adaptation. It discusses the challenges of assimilation and cultural preservation faced by the Talyshis, their linguistic characteristics, and the revival of Talysh self-awareness and nationalism in the face of external pressures. The paper uses a comprehensive analysis of historical, linguistic and ethnographic data to provide insights into the resilience of Talysh identity amidst political and cultural change.

This paper examines the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) among the Dawoodi Bohra community in Pakistan. FGM, a non-therapeutic alteration of the female genitalia, is examined through the lenses of religion, culture and health. The Dawoodi Bohra, predominantly based in Karachi, practice FGM as a religious and cultural rite, linking it to notions of purity and social acceptance. Despite global efforts to outlaw and eradicate FGM, it persists, underpinned by deeply held beliefs and the insular nature of the community. The physical and psychological effects of FGM are profound, leading to immediate and long-term complications such as severe pain, infection and psychological trauma. This paper discusses the impact of these practices on women’s health and rights, while critiquing the lack of an effective legal framework in Pakistan to combat FGM. In addressing this issue, the paper contributes to the broader discourse on gender-based violence and the rights of women and children in patriarchal societies.

This article is a revised version of the paper given at the Anthropology of Hope conference in Prague, May 2023, in response to Professor Aristotle Papanikolaou’s presentation on ‘Hope and Truth-telling’. The first part responds briefly to the affective nature of truth-telling which was presented, and queries the use of martyrial language. The second part looks at three sites on hope and truth-telling in the contemporary Catholic Church: (i) responding to the abuse crisis; (ii) ecumenical relationships, through the lens of ‘Receptive Ecumenism’; and, (iii) communal discernment, taking note of the current movement of synodality. A proposal is made to consider structures of (or structural) virtue as well as structural (or structures of) sin.

This paper seeks to argue that truth is not something that relates to telling/speaking only. Its main aim is to show that in their quest for communion with God, other human beings – and one should add – the entire creation, humans need to go beyond truth-telling toward the ways of embodying and dwelling in truth and hope. To introduce its argument, the paper proceeds in the following steps. First, it expounds a Christian perspective on truth, employing notions such as sacrament, desire, and relationality. Through the image of communion with God, a link between truth-telling and hope is outlined. Second, it tries to show that truth-telling is not only an affective but also an existential category. As such, it involves the whole of human being. Therefore, it makes sense to turn to the concept of body and embodiment when reflecting on the human pursuits of truth. The paper then, third, examines various constellations of this central claim by exploring a specific case from popular culture, namely, ‘Crocodile’, an episode from the Netflix series, Black Mirror. In particular, a proposal is made for the significance of embodying and dwelling in truth for Christian theology and practice. Finally, in the last step, this embodying and dwelling is given more concrete contours with respect to hope by probing into the images of home and feast.

Descarte's Discourse on method can be approached from several sides, among which history and philosophy of science (HPS) and sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) belong among the most important ones. Jan Maršálek's published recently a criticism of the book Descartes Nikétés from the perspectives of SSK, in which he joins John Schuster in denying the relevance of Descartes' methodological pronouncements for the practice of real science. The aim of the present paper is to draw a borderline between SSK and HPS and to argue on historical grounds for the relevance of the Cartesian methodology. We see the main historical contribution of the Cartesian methodology in its pivotal role in the development of Newton's approach to natural philosophy. The young Newton was a Cartesian and the development of his own system of natural philosophy can be interpreted as the result of a modification and deepening of the principles of the Cartesian method.

This paper reports on a research-training module in a conference interpreter training environment where students strive to acquire high-level interpreting skills through intensive practice over two years. Both theory and research are remote from their concerns. The module described was designed specifically for this environment. The aim was to raise the students’ awareness of the nature of research, of the gains it could offer to interpreters-in-training and to the interpreting profession, and of practical challenges it faces. Care was taken not to add a significant workload which they might view as irrelevant to their endeavours. This translated as an introductory two-lecture part followed by micro-experiments in which the students’ own interpreting exercises were used as material. The students were asked to record and transcribe their interpretations of experimental source speeches, to analyse and reflect on the data. In one exercise, they were asked to perform an experiment as researchers with other students as participants. Throughout the process, the instructors provided detailed guidance and explained how the experiments were designed, taking on board challenges and uncertainties, and what inferences could or could not be drawn from the data and why. A questionnaire at the end of the module suggests that the students found the module interesting, not excessively taxing, that it taught them something about research and also about interpreting. Since this module entails virtually no overheads as regards the students’ daily practice and gives them a good sense of the practical issues associated with research, it is suggested that it could be integrated into curricula with more traditional research training as well.

The paper describes the state of legal interpreting training in the Czech Republic, which, as it currently stands, focuses on legal terminology rather than specific interpreting techniques. Against this background of the existing training opportunities, the paper presents a pilot course on legal interpreting, including court interpreting, for BA and MA students of English for Translators and Interpreters at Palacký University Olomouc. It describes the design of the course, its content and the methodology applied. Specifically, it describes the different settings addressed in the courses and the materials and activities used to train interpreters for these settings, including a mock trial. Finally, the paper also discusses the challenges and potential room for further development.

The aim of this paper is to discuss some of the challenges resulting from the fact that interpreting classes at the Institute of Translation Studies (Charles University, Prague, Czechia) are attended by students whose mother tongue is not Czech (double degree students from Universität Leipzig or Erasmus+ incoming students). Drawing on the results of action research conducted in two different interpreting courses, we describe the challenges that this non-standard situation represents for the teacher, how teaching methods need to be adapted, what implications this distorted directionality has on student assessment, how this combination of students with different mother tongues can enrich interpreting seminars and their participants, and what benefits it brings to the interaction between teacher and student and among students.

Healthcare interpreting has been a topic of interest for various fields of study around the world for over 60 years; however, it has not yet been discussed comprehensively in the Czech Republic. This paper aims to lay the groundwork for future research in the country by providing a basic overview of the research findings abroad. Drawing on the summary article by Pöchhacker (2021), the contribution first examines studies and other works on interpreting in healthcare by researchers in fields other than translation studies, such as nursing, psychiatry, linguistics, and social sciences from the 1960s to the early 1990s. Afterwards, the paper compiles the findings of more recent studies from Africa; Asia and Australia; the United States, Canada and Mexico; and Northern, Southern, and Central Europe, concluding with remarks on the few works on healthcare interpreting that have been produced in the Czech Republic.