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The North Caucasian region is called the Russian Babylon due to its polyethnicity, multilingualism, religious syncretism, ancient mountain ethical codes coexisting along with state institutions of self-organization. Compared to other locales, it still manages to preserve many archaic forms of socio-normative and spiritual culture, although here, too, the first signs of a systemic crisis due to globalization processes are already visible. According to the articles presented in this journal issue, one can judge the current state and prospects for the development of the national languages and literatures of the Abkhaz, Balkars, Dagestanis, Kabardians, Karachays, Chechens, South and North Ossetians. Philosophers, literary scholars, folklorists, linguists raise and try to solve many urgent problems related to oral folk art, the status of the Russian language in the region, mass and literary bilingualism, the quality of literary translation, ethno-gender stereotypes, intertextuality mechanisms, as well as the possibility of using digital technologies in modern philological research.

The purpose of the paper was to substantiate the essence of metaculture as a way of recognizing yourself as a person in the maze of free will and action; determination of the structure, morphology and functional typology of metacultural metaphors and epistemological conditions for their contemplation. The introduction of this typology into the theory and practice of contemporary cultural pedagogy makes it expedient: 1) to avoid the practice of "imposing" and "adjusting" the process of metaphorizing the cultural artifact to a "ready" model of classical or non-classical rationality; reduction of the cultural metaphor to the semiotic interpretation of the sign; 2) to organize the "co-creation" of historical forms of the "I" and "you" dialogue in the metaphorical modeling of cultural artifacts on the basis of social and cultural pluralism and relativism. The systematic mentality methodology of the presented research implemented phenomenological-hermeneutic and semiotic approaches, methods of coherent modeling and expert evaluation of conceptual integration theory, connective theory of metaphorical interpretation, concept of nonlinear epistemology, principles of antinomy, verification, complexity, disjunctive synthesis. The scientific novelty of the material is to discover the peculiarities of the metacultural metaphor and determine epistemological strategies for contemplating its essential meaning. Conclusions. Epistemic metaculture implies a reflective use of the cultural experience of the Other One for creative self-development. The performance of its semiotic subject is effectively realized in the process of metaphorical cognitive science. The metamodern epistemological strategy overcomes the elenctic cognitive irony by applying a methodology of nonlinear thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many corporations make claims about the newness of their products in order to make the public interested in purchasing them, not all of them make the same kind of claims. Whereas previous studies have highlighted claims to newness that are based on emphasizing the newness of almost all the parts of new products in relation to the parts of those products' previous versions, I highlight claims to newness that are based on emphasizing the oldness of the parts of new products in relation to the parts of those products' previous versions. These two distinct kinds of claims are patterned after two diametrically opposed normative ideals of newness that have a specific intellectual history in the modern west. This history and its contemporary instantiations have implications for the study of the motion of culture in general, and of the mechanisms that propel it in the corporate world in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The omnibus production Ten Years is indubitably one of the most controversial films produced locally in post-millennial Hong Kong. Collaborated by five directors, the film portrays Hong Kong in ten years’ time through different imaginary scenarios in respect of political order, the demolition of familiar neighbourhoods, the marginalization of Cantonese language and culture, the authority’s violent suppression of dissent, and the strict implementation of censorship and state ideology. Greg Urban’s theory of “metaculture” provides a useful theoretical framework upon which my analysis of the circulation of Ten Years and its reception is based. With reference to how culture moves, I examine in this essay Ten Years as a cultural object and its travelling as a series of cultural movements. Inspired by Urban’s emphasis on the meta-level, I probe into not just the circulation of the film, but also how the circulation of the film is interpreted. Amidst the divided opinions and mixed criticisms on the film as well as its circulation, I locate what I call “imagined spectatorship” in the trajectories that are undertaken by the film across different textual and material realms. Inspired by Hans Robert Jauss’s reception theory and Benedict Anderson’s “imagined community”, the notion of “imagined spectatorship” offers a critical reflection on the actual effects generated by the travelling of Ten Years. In order to uncover the underlying forces in fuelling these rhizomatic trajectories and contrary readings, I explore at the intersection point of different “imagined spectatorships” the varying readerships of what one calls “local” in post-millennial Hong Kong. Finally, the travelling of Ten Years allows us to review Ackbar Abbas’s concept of “dis-appearance” in the context of post-handover Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While social media potentially changes which films attract public attention, film distributors retain a crucial role as gatekeepers in shaping prevailing conceptions of cinema from Latin American countries. I focus on three distributors outside Latin America to illustrate the evolving conditions of film distribution and how distributors serve a metacultural function to facilitate the circulation of particular films. Distributors act as curators of Latin American cinema and provide a means through which Latin American films acquire a generic or other categorization to pique the interests of transnational consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have examined Indigenous and mestizo communities that engage in social practices of transculturated, Amerindian and translingual literacies, often to resist efforts by powerful groups to oppress them. By drawing on data from studies conducted in Peru and the United States, we trace the trajectories of Amerindian and translingual literacies from the early modern/colonial period to the postmodern/postcolonial present. We trace the domination of alphabetic-text literacy driven by the ideology of its superiority and the coexistence of Amerindian and translingual literacies driven by the ideology of border gnoseology. We merge metaculture with colonial semiosis and literacy as translingual practice to account for continuities and discontinuities among semiotic systems in Amerindian literacies. Metaculture, colonial semiosis, and the existing data enable us to recognise previously overlooked texts and the social and literacy practices that produced them as products of border gnoseology and translingualism, and to apprehend Indigenous and mestizo material in autoethnographic texts studied primarily from the perspective of the subaltern appropriation of dominant paradigms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article develops a cultural theory of firstness and argues for its importance in understanding contemporary cultural circulation. It argues that firstness is a metaculture that plays a role in making culture circulation faster, more reliant on quantification, and more promotional. After drawing support from philosophical, historical, and theoretical understandings of firstness, the article pays particular attention to the cases of webbased comment threads and music blogs to showcase how the competition to be first is central to the cultural ecosystem, especially but not only online. The conclusion suggests how firstness might be indicative of a recursive cultural mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to apply the sociology of deviance and the concept of metaculture to the sociology of high-art and music. Examples of classical music criticisms over time are presented and discussed. Music critics have engaged in metaculture and norm promotion by labeling certain composers or styles of music as negatively deviant in a number of ways. Composers or styles of classical music have been labeled as not music, not worthy of being considered the future of music, a threat to culture, politically unacceptable, evil, and even criminal. Critics have linked composers they are critical of with other deviant categories, and ethnocentrism, racism, and other biases play a role in critics’ attempts to engage in norm promotion and affect the public temper. As society changes, musical norms and therefore deviant labels concerning music also change. Maverick composers push musical ideas forward, and those music critics who resist these changes are unable to successfully promote their dated, more traditional norms. Implications of the findings for the sociology of deviance and the sociology of music are discussed.

Witchcraft as metaculture in the Bolivian Chaco. This paper treats a multi-village assembly that was held to adjudicate an accusation of witchcraft in the Guaraní-speaking indigenous community of Isoso, in the Bolivian Chaco, in 1999. The argument of the article is that the leadership of this community attempted an anthropological treatment of a problem of witchcraft by addressing it at a « meta-cultural » level having to do with community dynamics. However, the Isoseño leadership found – as have anthropologists – that shifting the frame of reference of a problem is not the same as resolving it, and that conflict can be as easily transmuted as can frames of analysis. The article concludes that a sophisticated, reflexive self-consciousness about culture on the part of modern indigenous leaders may not allow them to transcend culture in their home communities, any more than the culture concept has allowed anthropologists to solve their most puzzling disciplinary problems.

The article discusses changes in the area of culture related to promoting and distributing cultural content on the internet, as well as transformations concerning flow of cultural content, practices of participation in culture and new business models, that emerged in this sphere. Statistics on the usage of media, including TV and the internet, in Poland were examined. While presenting changes in distribution and related new business models, focus was put on the effects of content overproduction and numerous channels of distribution, resulting in the growing role of filtering mechanisms. It has also been shown, how the use of the internet supports participation in culture offline, and the relevant mechanisms have been pointed. Raising popularity of the internet, diversification of channels to access cultural content and more democratic, in comparison to the old media, ecosystem, with lowered entry barriers, belong to the crucial aspects of the changes discussed. Among conclusions, the role of the state in this new system, as well as and the place for the Internet in the broader model of civic participation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The publication of a series of Shakespeare Manga by the British company SelfMadeHero affords the opportunity to consider the motivations and methods behind such publications. Visual style, audience, expressions of identity and attempts to modernize through the youth appeal of technology, gore and a preponderance of the visual are all examined. The motivation behind these phenomena is not just an attempt to emulate a financially successful form of Japanese popular culture, but to appropriate some of the soft power that Japan has accrued through the almost worldwide success of its manga. Soft power is the ability to get what one wants through attraction, and Japanese manga's infiltrating of not just western cultural products but imaginations confers soft power on Japan. These slim volumes promote Shakespeare while trying to lay claim to some of this soft power. Finally, a deliberation of whether these books are western or eastern leads to the conclusion that they are a part of a new Metaculture space that is both and neither at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage tourism commonly involves displays designed to represent and commemorate a valued cultural past. Our particular focus in this paper is mining heritage, and how it has been developed in Wales and Cornwall to reflect their rather different, but culturally and nationally defining, industrial histories. From some historical and critical perspectives, heritage is still a controversial concept involving simulation and commercialisation, which is often perceived as inauthentic. Yet heritage sites like Geevor in Cornwall and Big Pit in Wales, our two empirical foci, are promoted largely in terms of their authentic value. Visitors can 'experience the past', e.g. by going underground, being guided by 'real miners' and engaging with material artefacts of mining, not merely observe it. We draw on recent critical perspectives that move beyond essentialising conceptions of (in)authenticity, to analyse the competing claims to authenticity that we see in the promotional and interpretive discourses of mining heritage. We argue that, at the two sites, such discourses are organised within four frames, which we refer to as material, cultural, performative and recreational. Each frame defines a social dimension in which authenticity can be experienced. Together, the four frames provide a productive means of discursively managing the competing priorities that lie at the heart of heritage tourism. Mewn twristiaeth treftadaeth defnyddir yn fynych arddangosion a luniwyd i gynrychioli a choffáu gorffennol diwylliannol a drysorir. Ar dreftadaeth mwyngloddio yr ydym yn canolbwyntio'n benodol yn y papur hwn, a'r modd y datblygodd yng Nghymru ac yng Nghernyw i adlewyrchu hanes diwydiannol y ddwy ardal, hanesion eithaf annhebyg, ond rhai sy'n diffinio diwylliant a chenedligrwydd y ddwy ardal. O rai safbwyntiau hanesyddol a beirniadol, mae treftadaeth yn parhau'n gysyniad dadleuol, un sy'n ymwneud ag efelychu a masnacheiddio a ystyrir yn fynych yn anawthentig. Ac eto, caiff safleoedd treftadaeth fel Geevor yng Nghernyw a'r Pwll Mawr yng Nghymru, ein dau ffocws empirig, eu hyrwyddo i raddau helaeth o safbwynt eu gwerth awthentig. Gall ymwelwyr 'fyw'r gorffennol', e.e. drwy fynd o dan y ddaear, cael eu harwain gan 'fwyngloddwyr go iawn' a thrin a thrafod arteffactau materol mwyngloddio, nid dim ond edrych arnyn nhw. Rydym yn tynnu ar safbwyntiau beirniadol diweddar sy'n mynd y tu hwnt i gysyniadau sy'n hanfodoli (an)awthentigrwydd, i ddadansoddi'r gwahanol enghreifftiau o hawlio awthentigrwydd a welwn mewn disgyrsiau hyrwyddo a dehongli yn nhreftadaeth mwyngloddio. Rydym yn dadlau y caiff disgyrsiau o'r fath, ar y ddau safle, eu trefnu yn ôl pedair ffrâm, sef beth a alwn yn ffrâm faterol, ffrâm ddiwylliannol, ffrâm berfformiadol a ffrâm hamdden. Mae pob ffrâm yn diffinio dimensiwn cymdeithasol lle gellir cael profiad o awthentigrwydd. Gyda'i gilydd, mae'r pedair ffrâm yn ffordd ddefnyddiol o drin, drwy ddisgwrs, yr amryw flaenoriaethau sydd wrth wraidd twristiaeth treftadaeth [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Older Aymara siblings teach their younger siblings through “correction”. [•] “Correction” is a kind of metacultural positioning unique to older siblings. [•] The discursive task of metacultural positioning is central to socialization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Copyright of Athena: Filosofijos studijos is the property of Lithuanian Culture Research Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: Discourses of Gaelic language revitalization in Scotland are analyzed as examples of Greg Urban’s ‘metaculture’ in order to gain a better understanding of how people attempt sociolinguistic change through minority language revitalization efforts. After describing the 18th-century emergence of ‘discourses of revitalization and redemption’ about Gaelic, this paper analyzes seven different themes or predications about Gaelic made in the 18th through 20th centuries to justify its salvation. I demonstrate how the discourses constitute metacultural and meta-linguistic commentaries on cultural and linguistic practices, and how previously circulating elements of culture, including language ideologies and affective stances, are dialogically contained within each creative revitalizing response and facilitate its circulation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Beginning with Edward Tylor's (1889) definition of culture as socially “acquired,” I focus in this article on motion as social acquisition and transmission through “artifacts”—both durable (like ceramic pots) and fleeting (like sounds). Motion can be detected by comparison of the artifacts to which people are exposed with those they in turn produce. I examine rates of interaction with artifacts and changes in rates as evidence of the operation of “forces” such as interest and metaculture. I develop a set of axioms or laws of motion, growing out of fine-grained research on naturally occurring discourse, and endeavor to demonstrate their utility through application to three empirical cases. Although I deal with relatively small-scale artifacts, I conclude this article with the suggestion that its methods may prove useful in the broader study of cultural phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inquiring into the causes behind the spread of secularism in the modern world, this paper proposes that the concept has proliferated owing to its peculiar property as culture: It is simultaneously a piece of culture and also a reflection upon culture. In its latter capacity, it imagines a world in which alternative religious belief systems divide people. It spreads as a piece of culture because it enables sharing and, hence, community, across the cultural boundaries erected by religious belief. For this reason, some governments have embraced the concept and incorporated it into official state discourse. Other governments, in turn, have copied the language of secularism not for its intended meaning but for pragmatic purposes—namely, to proclaim a position within the community of modern nations. State discourse, however, irrespective of the reasons for which it was adopted, affects how ordinary people reason about religion. Reasoning from the possibility of alternative religions opens a space for unbelief. Through an analysis of constitutional language, census data, and interviews, the paper concludes that secularism has more to do with the circulation of discourse and the reasons behind it, than with an immanent versus transcendent solution to the puzzle of existence—the transcendent solution being the foundation for the circulation of religious belief itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gruppendynamik und Organisationsberatung is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal de la Société des Américanistes is the property of Societe des Americanistes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This essay considers the proposal of a new cultural-theoretical problematic of ‘culture as resource’ from three points of view: (1) its ‘metacultural’ structure, (2) Adorno's account of the relationship between culture and administration, and (3) the relationship between pragmatism and Cultural Studies. ‘Culture as resource’, it suggests, aspires to the status of a new cultural-theoretical paradigm that might transform Cultural Studies into Cultural Policy Studies, in much the same way that, on Mulhern's account in Culture/Metaculture, Cultural Studies critically succeeded Kulturkritik. As such, it represents the political revenge of pragmatism on Cultural Studies for the untheorized presumption of its immediate practicality. With the refunctioning of transnational frameworks as the means for a newfound orientation to policy studies, it is argued, it is time for Cultural Studies to reconsider the presuppositions about use on which it politics has historically been grounded. It is time, in fact, for a Pragmatist Dispute in Cultural Theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article locates laments in interdiscursive chains and explores them in relation to four dimensions of interdiscursivity: (1) their inclusion of reported speech, (2) their an- ticipation and evocation of particular responses, (3) the generic constitution of each lament (its relation to others in the same genre), and (4) the global or local metacultural orientation of laments and related discourses. I argue that links between traditional laments and (post)modern mourning not only are ideological constructions but also are quite substantive. The article raises questions about nonlinguistic, gestural, and melodic modes of textuality and about the tendency of lament to be retrospective and to be labeled "backward." The fact that some voices label lament "backward" or "primitive" at the same time that others generate new laments on "the death of culture" illustrates the fundamental instability of (post)modern metadiscursive regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

■ Most accounts of psychedelic mushroom use in Mexico's Sierra Maza teca describe the practice as a prehispanic survival degraded by tourism. This article explores how - through chants, self-descriptions and life stories - Mazatec curers who deal with 'outsiders' use the discourse surrounding mushrooms to construct a mimetic model of power and the relationship between inside and outside that highlights the importance of the border and the position of the mediator. The themes of shamanic travel and the book make both sense and power out of magical mushroom mediation and involve the outsider as an essential component of Mazatec identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]