DRESSED IN PHOTOGRAPHS: BETWEEN UNIFORMIZATION, SELF-ENHANCEMENT AND THE PROMOTION OF STARS AND LEADERS IN BAMAKO

ABSTRACTMost literature on cloth focuses on its capacity as a medium of identity construction in relation to politics, economy, ethnicity, age and gender. As such, the equalizing properties of uniforms are often contrasted with the creation of individual styles of dress. This article discusses a further dimension in the complexity of the meanings of clothing: it explores the history, uses and local meanings of fabrics on which photographs of public personalities are printed in Bamako. In Bamako in the 2000s, entrepreneurs from different sectors of society, such as politics, religion, media, art, education and commerce, rediscovered this type of cloth as a business opportunity. They have produced decorated fancy textiles for events where large, heterogeneous groups of people participate most often, and where they multiply the image printed on their clothing. Some of these personalities distribute the cloth as promotional gifts, while others make their fans and followers purchase fabrics as evidence of their admiration. The uniforms decorated with photographs reflect a tendency towards asymmetrical relationships between the owners of the dresses and the personality depicted on them. Some of these relationships even encourage individual styles that transgress the uniform character of the dresses.

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Social and Pragmatic Rules of Cursing and Other Routine Formulas in Gurage and Norwegian Culture

Oslo Studies in Language ◽

10.5617/osla.4432 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Fekede Menuta ◽

Ruth Vatvedt Fjeld

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Research ◽

Identity Construction ◽

Research Methodology ◽

Negative Attitude ◽

Formal Group ◽

Nordic Countries ◽

Age And Gender ◽

The Past ◽

Qualitative Research Methodology ◽

And Gender

The Gurage are South Ethiosemitic speakers living in the Gurage Zone in Ethiopia. In the Gurage culture, cursing expressions have differing sociological significance. They are used both literally and pragmatically. Although the cursing expressions are endangered due to modern religions, they are not well studied and documented. The objective of this article is to describe the sociolinguistic and pragmatic meanings and the structural patterns of cursing expressions in the Gurage culture, and then to compare the expressions with Nordic countries’ cursing to uncover if there are universal tendencies in the rules and routines of cursing. The study follows qualitative research methodology. The cursing expressions were partly collected from literature and largely elicited from key informants. For the cursing in Gurage, the Gumer variety, from among other 12 dialect clusters of Guragina, was chosen to maintain uniformity in description. The findings showed that self-cursing in Gurage is used to express regret, encouragement, admiration, congratulation, condolence and politeness. Alter cursing is used to cause fear, to express emotions and negative attitude towards others. Age and gender determine cursing practice. Only elder men can take part in formal group alter cursing. Women generally curse themselves and individuals in informal situations. Formal alter cursing in Gurage is graded by elders for its severity. Cursing in the Nordic countries of today is more restricted to psychological functions and a kind of identity construction. In the past, however, several of its functions were similar to the ones in Gurage.

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FEATURES OF THE CEPHALOMETRIC PROFILE OF UKRAINIAN YOUTH BY METHODS OF RICKETTS R. M., BURSTONE C. J. AND HARVOLD E. P.

World Science ◽

10.31435/rsglobal_ws/30062019/6569 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (6(46)) ◽

pp. 4-10

Author(s):

Dmitriev M. O. ◽

Chernysh A. V. ◽

Gunas I. V.

Keyword(s):

Ethnic Groups ◽

Young Men ◽

Age And Gender ◽

Men And Women ◽

The Creation ◽

And Gender ◽

Gender Groups

In the article, on the basis of the previous metric characteristics of craniofacial structures using methods of Ricketts R. M., Burstone C. J. and Harvold E. P. in Ukrainian young men and women with orthognathic bite, the features of the cephalometric profile of Ukrainian young men and women were analyzed in comparison with the values of analogical indices of the data determined by the authors of these techniques on residents of other populations and ethnic groups. The established features of the cephalometric characteristics of the juvenile Ukrainian population confirm the need for the creation and further study of normative cephalometric data for various ethnic, age and gender groups of the population.

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