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The publication analyzes Soviet-era questionnaires filled out for the purpose of dating in Riga from 1979 to 1982 that are related to the activities of the then Leningrad district culture club Let's Get to Know Each Other. The research uses prosopography, which is one of the research methods or approaches of life-writing. Unlike life-writing potentialities offered by, for example, autobiography, in dating club questionnaires people had a minimal opportunity to tell about themselves or develop automythology, which on the one hand made the texts less engaging for the reader, but, on the other, gave more credibility to the data provided. It was relatively difficult in these limited opportunities to reveal the details of one's life story in a way that would personally interest a potential partner. It can be seen from the questionnaires that many people who were looking for a partner did not have a separate apartment. It was not accepted to ask or talk about sex in public. In general, the material of dating questionnaires quite organically fits into that section of life-writing, which is often called contextual biography. Namely, the questions and answers of the questionnaires are not really understandable, nor can they be evaluated outside the social context of the 1970-80s. The data included in more than 100 questionnaires of Let's Get to Know Each Other dating club provide relatively good additional material for the collective social portrait of average Riga resident in the 1970s and 1980s, the data also help to characterize the living conditions in Soviet Latvia during its decline, and vividly mark the threshold or transitional situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liquid modernity is a concept proposed by Zygmunt Bauman that denotes modern tendencies in the development of the global capitalism economy. One of the main processes characterizing liquid modernity is human mobility, which in its turn results in a fragmented and indefinite identity and in the marginalization of local belonging. Mobility, especially in the form of long-term emigration, has become one of the major demographic problems Latvia has experienced. To provide solutions to the problems caused by emigration, in 2013 the Government of Latvia adopted an action plan to support re-emigration. The main idea of the plan refers basically to economic aspects. Obviously, it is not only economic factors that stimulate expatriates to return back home; psychological, emotional and symbolic aspects are no less significant. One of the most powerful symbols of re-emigration is home. The concept of home occupies one of the most important places in the process of selfcategorization. It helps to organize self-knowledge and to recognize one's own place in the surrounding environment (spatial and social, as well as mental) of emotions and memories. What is home in the era of liquid modernity? The observations made during the fieldworks in Riga, Valka and in the Svētupe region (2013-2016) showed that home is one of the most stable concepts in the construction of Latvian identity and the concept "my father's home" still exists in Latvian worldview as a mytheme and as a symbolic equivalent of the beginning, of harmonic existence and "source of happiness and strength". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, facing the contradictory views of consumers of natural resources and. nature conservationists, it is not only important to make new insights, but also to take an in-depth look back into the history. About two thirds of Latvian folk songs are thematically related, to nature and its elements (forest with trees, plants, stones, water) and. living creatures (birds and. animals, insects, fish). In Latvian folklore, we find, more than 100 female spirits - Mothers, who supervised, various areas of human lives. The oldest of the Mothers were the ones who supervised the elements of nature and who were themselves the embodiments of these elements. Believing that Mothers were embodied, in nature, people treated, nature with reverence, sacrificing part of their benefits to individually selected trees, springs, stones, fire. Perhaps, this is how the idea of sacred, forests had developed., where only priests could, go (for example, holy birch groves of Curonian kings in Kurzeme), and. other shrines that were carefully demarcated, and. protected, from the eyes of strangers. Mother Earth, mentioned, in Latvian folklore, was the one who ruled, over the cyclical replacement of natural beings and objects by giving birth to them, but, when the right time came, paving the way to the end of their lives. If Mother Earth inhabited, the bottom level of the cosmic space, then Mother Wind. and. Mother Air ruled, over the upper level of the Earth. The activity of Mother Thunder extended, from the upper part to the lower part of the cosmic space, taking care of the fertile rain coming from heaven to the earth. The non-cosmic part of nature is represented, in folklore by Mother Forest, who oversaw not only plants, animals, birds, but also people in the forest, who looked, for food or trees for felling. The functions of the guardian, including the care of people and. animals, are also attributed, to Mother Bush. It is believed, that ancient people expected, specific benefits and favor from Mothers of Hazelnuts, Berries, and. Mushrooms. Mother Sun, Mother Fog, Mother Snow, and. Mother Night, were related to specific season and. day or night time (sun, fog, snow and winter). Several Mothers (Mother Water, Mother Sea, Mother Lake, Mother River) were attributed to the element of water. It is believed, that sacrifices were given to Mother Fire, who embodied, the element of fire. Examining Latvian folk songs and. other folklore sources, Mothers embodying the forces of cosmic space, were seen not only as creators and. masters of nature objects, but. also as destroyers and. then rebirthers, symbolizing the cyclical phases of nature life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The corpus of folksongs contains at least over one hundred patterns, which can be regarded as ritualistic threats. Ritualistic threats mainly were made in celebrations and feasts, most often - in the summer and the winter solstice, as well as weddings. The threateners, as already mentioned, mostly were "strangers", and the hosts were requested to give them treats. In Midsummer celebrations the threateners were called the Midsummer's children, who came to demand beer from the host and cheese, milk from the hostess. If the treat was not given, the singer alone or together with other boys threatened to tread out the host's barley field. The threats usually took an evil and destructive verbal form. When turning to the hostess, the threateners menaced her to destroy the cattle, namely, the cows belonging to the host family. At Christmas, the threateners were no longer called the Midsummer's children, but mummers. The addressees of the threats were similar to that of the Midsummer, namely, the hosts. The mummers usually threatened to break the established order of family home, regardless of the generous meal provided by the hosts. The mummers menaced the hosts' daughters with sexual abuse, and what is even more incomprehensible and weird - the hosts' sons were threatened by mummers' daughters. Obviously, these threats were made to awaken libido. The awakening in nature also meant the awakening of the human body. If in the summer and winter solstice the ritualistic threats were linked to the destruction of fields, livestock and people, then in weddings the threats were made mainly in the form of possible sexual aggression. The redirection of aggression works best, if it has a ritualistic scenario, developed by previous generations. The best scenario is based not on physical force or weapons, but on "a sharp tongue" - mutual chaffing in songs. The ritual aggression, which is reflected in our folksongs, is a vivid example of how coexistence was possible without doing harm to each other - neighbours or villages. At the same time, it is an example of how ritualistic threats can be transposed not only to peaceful cohabitation, but also to friendship and love. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current article provides reflections of the history of the Uniate Church in Ukraine and Belarus, as well as Latgale, the Eastern part of Latvia. Uniate movement in the Byelorussian and Ukrainian context is very much linked to defining their national roots and developing them further, at the same time looking towards the West. Uniates have been quite well spread also throughout Latgale (especially among Byelorussians), however, they were suppressed in the period of tsarism, as well as during the Soviet period. The 1990s saw the beginning the revival of the Uniate movement. Consequently, several Uniate churches (in Daugavpils, Riga and other places) were established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For several centuries Latvian moral values have been rooted, on the one hand, in folklore traditions, and, on the other hand, in Christianity. The first one was based on oral testimonies that were not written down or defined in a rational manner (folksongs, folk beliefs, proverbs, fairy tales and customs), the latter - on written and rationally defined sources. In the folklore tradition the taboo was expressed in a symbolic way as two or three options for action. In the case of the wrong choice, the consequences were negative, if the choice was right - positive. It can be defined as the morality of fairy tales, and it is a morality without moralizing. In Christianity “you shall not” was expressed directly and obviously - in Ten Commandments or various compilations of secular laws (with the respective indications of punishment). The first system was established following the ideas on the concreteness of the world and things. It is also attested by the meaning of the respective attributes tikumīgs, lietīgs, godīgs, gantīgs, ķītrs (‘virtuous', ‘decent', ‘honest') in folklore texts, which only in a lengthy process of evolution acquired a certain level of abstraction in Latvian language. In the second system, the generalizations of the moral values dominated. In the first system, the notion of shame was active, in the second system - the notion of sin. However, neither the first, nor the second system managed to function according to one and the same standard in relation to “us” and the “others”, to create morality per se. Both ethical systems had strict boundaries, which only a few dared to cross. Whereas in the 21st century, when the principle of moral relativism has become more popular, we can expect the transformation of boundaries between the possibility and impossibility of any ethical norms, as well as the renewal and new additions to the vocabulary related to this question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an insight in the materials that the author has collected over the meetings with Arturs Baumanis in person in 1988. During several conversations the author took notes on Baumanis' stories about himself and his contemporaries—writers and cultural workers—as well as about writing the trilogy Hernhūtieši (The Herrnhutians). During these conversations photographs of Arturs Baumanis were taken, and over the years, it has turned out that these pictures are nearly the only publicly accessible visual representations of him. Likewise, the author collected additional notes written by Baumanis on the creative process of Hernhūtieši, as well as his biographical notes. So far they have been published only partially. The article provides a broader perspective on these notes, revealing significant sources of inspiration for Baumanis' creative work. In the context with these conversations and notes the second part of the article examines the architectural features of the Herrnhutian gathering houses. The research carried out by architects Pauls Kundziņš and Roberts Legzdiņš is the most important one in this aspect, and the specific pattern of the pillars of these houses has been particularly emphasised by these authors. It confirms that the Herrnhutians built their cult buildings completely on their own without any external influence. The forms of the pillars were not related to the style of the official architecture of the time at all. Pauls Kundziņš refers these peculiar forms of pillars to the Early Middle Ages. The artist and ethnographic scholar Jēkabs Bīne has written about the parallels of these architectonic details in the art of Lithuanians, ancient Prussians, ancient Indians, Norwegians, the Karelians, etc. This architectonic detail had not only a practical, but also a sacral function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article regards the understanding of the notion "home / my home" in the present-day Latvia, mostly rural areas where folk traditions have been preserved. Apart from folklore as non-material value, wooden architecture is treated as a material value in the countryside. In the course of time, part of previously significant in economy and history of culture wooden buildings (threshing barn, cattle-shed, barn) have no direct use any more nowadays. These buildings either vanish from the rural environment or are rebuilt into garages or buildings with some other practical functions. People living in the countryside have preserved the notion of the symbolical worth of separate parts of wooden buildings (roof - windows - doors) and their surroundings (flower garden, fruit orchard, tended meadow). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latvian wooden house (in a broader context—wooden houses) so far have been examined mostly within the disciplines of history or ethnography. Only a few studies (in the 1920s and 1930s) may be referred to a house as an object of folklore and/or mythology. On the grounds of Latvian folklore material, as well as the field studies carried out by the author over a decade (2003-2013) in Latvian regions and Latvian diaspora in Russia (Siberia) and Belarus, the outer shell of a house (walls, roof, windows, door) and its mythical-magical functions in folk opinion have been analysed. The author has come to a conclusion that gradually the boundary between the binary polarisation “us and the other”, “to be protected—to be unprotected”, “our space—the other space”, “secured and open” that were so crucial in the folk tradition has been dismantled. The “skin” of the house, to a great extent, has lost its significant function of protection rooted in the tradition, preserving only the practical function—guarding from cold or heat, and partially the aesthetic function—which of the house owners have a more beautiful or unusual paintwork or the design elements of the external wall. At the same time, nowadays there is a tendency to return to the protection signs of the house (pentagrams, octograms, etc.), whose meaning is rooted in the ancient mythical and magical ideas about the isomorphism and periodic renewal of the house (microspace) and the world (macrospace). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]