The Changing Way of Life and Altered Values in the Mountain Villages of Himachal Pradesh. An Analysis of the Hindi Short Stories of S.R. Harnoṭ

2019 ◽  
Vol 79 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 236-271
Author(s):  
Mariola Offredi

Abstract The article, based on the Hindi short stories of S.R. Harnoṭ, focuses on the transformation of villages in an age of globalisation. The setting of the stories is the mountain villages of Himachal Pradesh, and, in a few instances, Shimla, also a mountain location. The article is divided into two sections. The first is an overview of the stories, the second covers two main themes: the arrogance of power and the distortions generated from its abuse, and the effects of glocalisation and the end of the social produced by technological progress, which cuts off direct contact between human beings. The two themes merge in a single discussion in the conclusion through the unifying element of nature, an ever-present theme that is at times explicit, at times implied. Throughout the analysis three terms have been used to highlight the changes in village life: modernisation, glocalisation and globalisation.

Muzealnictwo ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 163-172
Author(s):  
Michał Niezabitowski

As a result of the pandemic, in March 2020, world museology was cut off from the direct contact with their public. Owing to the introduced regulations, Polish museums were closed down on three occasions (14 March – 4 May 2020, 15 Oct 2020 – 31 Jan 2021, and 20 March – 4 May 2021). When searching for new forms of activity, in 2020, museums made an enormous technological progress, and mastered numerous new competences allowing them to move in cyberspace with ease. The pace at which they introduced various ‘online’ formats is worthy of appreciation. Presently, the time has come to ask whether the effectiveness in reaching the public via such means truly contributed to consolidating a strong bond with them. In order to get the answer to this, it is necessary to critically assess the museum efforts, which will not be possible without researching into the Polish public over that period. Wishing to voice my opinion in the critical discourse on the museums’ activity during the pandemic, I have decided to share my experience from a selected activity of the Museum of Krakow: I have presented the effects of the social Programme titled ‘Stay at Home and Tell Krakow’ (#zostanwdomuiopowiedzkrakow). The Museum created this programme convinced that a city dweller, exposed to the oppression of the pandemic will feel the urge to share his or her experience. Apparently, the appeal made by the Museum of Krakow was eagerly responded to. The Museum received ‘stories’ about the pandemic in different formats: prose, poems, diaries, visual arts, and even musical pieces and artifacts. The results of the ‘Stay at Home and Tell Krakow’ Programme are currently hard to sum up, however, what seems a valuable and worth analysing experience is the focus of residents’ attention on the Museum which they considered an institution trustworthy enough to entrust it their private, often intimate reflections on living through that challenging period.


Author(s):  
Keith Ray ◽  
Julian Thomas

Human societies are held together by relationships, conventions, traditions, institutions, and tacit understandings. These things are intangible, and while humans themselves are reproduced as corporeal beings, their societies are sustained by practical activities that continually recreate knowledge, customs, and interpersonal bonds. Just as a language would ultimately disappear if it ceased to be used as a means of communication, so the rules and routines of social life are maintained only if they are practised. The corollary of this is that societies are not fixed and bounded entities as much as arrangements that are continually coming into existence, works (if you like) that are never completed. But material things are also in flux, constantly ripening, maturing, being made, being used consecutively in different ways through their ‘lifespans’, eroding and decaying: so that the social and substantial worlds are as one in being in an unending state of becoming. Nonetheless, objects often have the capacity to endure longer than habits, rules, or affiliations. They continue to exist independently of human beings and their actions. As a result, old artefacts and places occupied in the past can serve to give structure to current practices and transactions, providing cues and prompts, or reminding us of past events and appropriate modes of conduct. Hunter-gatherers have generally lived a way of life that involves making continual reference to natural features and landmarks. Certain distinctive cliffs, hills, islands, trees, and lakes have represented places to return to, or at which to arrange meetings or encounter game. As such they will have been places of periodic resort, and were incorporated into collective history and mythology. Meanwhile, other places acquired a meaning simply because specific people camped there, or met there, or died there. During the Mesolithic in Britain, some locations seem to have been persistently returned to over very long periods of time. One example is the site at North Park Farm, Bletchingley in Surrey, which appears to have been visited sporadically over hundreds of years, although the structural evidence for this at the site was sparse, being limited to a group of fireplaces.


1997 ◽  
pp. 337-352
Author(s):  
Yaacov Shavit

This chapter explores three different issues: how familiar the Sages were with Greek culture and through which agents of culture they learned about it, to what extent they were influenced by it or how many different elements they adopted from it, and how tolerant the Sages were regarding the use of Hellenistic elements by the Jewish public. Here, complex cultures are characterized by multifariousness and stratification. The history of culture reveals a wide diversity of needs and tendencies, expressed in the social context, and the power or weakness of the mechanism for screening and supervision to control all aspects and layers of the cultural system. Any attempt to limit the scope of Judaism as a religious way of life thus assumes that the Jews were somehow unlike all other human beings. Or, that they had the same cultural needs as all humanity, but were able to satisfy and answer these needs by themselves, being totally independent of any outside help or influence.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 59-68
Author(s):  
Peter Takáč

AbstractLookism is a term used to describe discrimination based on the physical appearance of a person. We suppose that the social impact of lookism is a philosophical issue, because, from this perspective, attractive people have an advantage over others. The first line of our argumentation involves the issue of lookism as a global ethical and aesthetical phenomenon. A person’s attractiveness has a significant impact on the social and public status of this individual. The common view in society is that it is good to be more attractive and healthier. This concept generates several ethical questions about human aesthetical identity, health, authenticity, and integrity in society. It seems that this unequal treatment causes discrimination, diminishes self-confidence, and lowers the chance of a job or social enforcement for many human beings. Currently, aesthetic improvements are being made through plastic surgery. There is no place on the human body that we cannot improve with plastic surgery or aesthetic medicine. We should not forget that it may result in the problem of elitism, in dividing people into primary and secondary categories. The second line of our argumentation involves a particular case of lookism: Melanie Gaydos. A woman that is considered to be a model with a unique look.


Author(s):  
Oksana Galchuk

The theme of illegitimacy Guy de Maupassant evolved in his works this article perceives as one of the factors of the author’s concept of a person and the plane of intersection of the most typical motifs of his short stories. The study of the author’s concept of a person through the prism of polivariability of the motif of a bastard is relevant in today’s revision of traditional values, transformation of the usual social institutions and search for identities, etc. The purpose of the study is to give a definition to the existence specifics of the bastard motif in the Maupassant’s short stories by using historical and literary, comparative, structural methods of analysis as dominant. To do this, I analyze the content, variability and the role of this motive in the formation of the Maupassant’s concept of a person, the author’s innovations in its interpretation from the point of view of literary diachrony. Maupassant interprets the bastard motif in the social, psychological and metaphorical-symbolic sense. For the short stories with the presentation of this motif, I suggest the typology based on the role of it in the structure of the work and the ideological and thematic content: the short stories with a motif-fragment, the ones with the bastard’s leitmotif and the group where the bastard motif becomes a central theme. The Maupassant’s interpretation of the bastard motif combines the general tendencies of its existence in the world’s literary tradition and individual reading. The latter is the result of the author’s understanding of the relevant for the era issues: the transformation of the family model, the interest in the theory of heredity, the strengthening of atheistic sentiments, the growth of frustration in the system of traditional social and moral values etc. This study sets the ground for a prospective analysis of the evolution the bastard motif in the short-story collections of different years or a comparative study of the motif in short stories and novels by Maupassant.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Marlina Marlina

Reading short stories “Suku Pompong” (Pompong Tribe) and “Rumah di Ujung Kampung” (House at the End of the Village) is like reading a historical reality that is happening on the ground of Riau Malay. The exploitation of forest resources on a large scale in recent decades in Riau Province has changed the land use of the area of intact forest into plantation area. The exploitation process causes friction in the community. The friction is eventually lead to conflict between communities and plantation companies. Their struggle to resolve conflicts and maintain their ancestral land, the strength of the company that has the license to the land and sadness when the public finally has always been on the losing side. This study objected to describe the objective reality of the Malay community in terms of land conversion, the communal land into plantations and reality of imaginative literature contained in the short stories “Suku Pompong” dan “Rumah di Ujung Kampung”. This study applied the sociology of literature approach, while the sociological approach to literature is a literary approach that specializes in reviewing literature by considering the social aspects. Based on these approaches, it can be concluded that short stories Suku Pompong and Rumah di Ujung Jalan are short stories that raised the reality of the Malay community.AbstrakMembaca cerpen “Suku Pompong” dan cerpen “Rumah di Ujung Kampung” seperti membaca sebuah realita sejarah yang terjadi di tanah Melayu Riau. Ekploitasi sumber daya hutan secara besar-besaran pada beberapa dekade terakhir di Provinsi Riau telah mengubah tata guna lahan dari kawasan hutan yang utuh menjadi kawasan perkebunan. Proses eksploitasi tersebut menimbulkan gesekan-gesekan dalam masyarakat. Gesekan-gesekan inilah yang akhirnya menimbulkan konflik antara masyarakat dengan pihak perusahaan perkebunan. Perjuangan masyarakat dalam menyelesaikan konflik dan mempertahankan tanah leluhur mereka, kekuatan pihak perusahaan yang memiliki surat izin atas tanah tersebut, dan kesedihan ketika masyarakat akhirnya selalu berada di pihak yang kalah. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan realitas objektif masyarakat Melayu Riau dalam hal alih fungsi lahan, dari lahan tanah ulayat menjadi lahan perkebunan, dan realititas imajinatif sastra yang terdapat dalam cerpen “Suku Pompong” dan cerpen “Rumah di Ujung Kampung”. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan sosiologi sastra, yaitu suatu pendekatan sastra yang mengkhususkan diri dalam menelaah karya sastra dengan mempertimbangkan segi-segi sosial kemasyarakatan. Dari pendekatan tersebut dapat diambil kesimpulan bahwa cerpen “Suku Pompong” dan cerpen “Rumah di Ujung Kampung” memang merupakan cerpen yang mengangkat realitas masyarakat Melayu Riau.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Tuncay Şur ◽  
Betül Yarar

This paper seeks to understand why there has been an increase in photographic images exposing military violence or displaying bodies killed by military forces and how they can freely circulate in the public without being censored or kept hidden. In other words, it aims to analyze this particular issue as a symptom of the emergence of new wars and a new regime of their visual representation. Within this framework, it attempts to relate two kinds of literature that are namely the history of war and war photography with the bridge of theoretical discussions on the real, its photographic representation, power, and violence.  Rather than systematic empirical analysis, the paper is based on a theoretical attempt which is reflected on some socio-political observations in the Middle East where there has been ongoing wars or new wars. The core discussion of the paper is supported by a brief analysis of some illustrative photographic images that are served through the social media under the circumstances of war for instance in Turkey between Turkish military troops and the Kurdish militants. The paper concludes that in line with the process of dissolution/transformation of the old nation-state formations and globalization, the mechanism and mode of power have also transformed to the extent that it resulted in the emergence of new wars. This is one dynamic that we need to recognize in relation to the above-mentioned question, the other is the impact of social media in not only delivering but also receiving war photographies. Today these changes have led the emergence of new machinery of power in which the old modern visual/photographic techniques of representing wars without human beings, torture, and violence through censorship began to be employed alongside medieval power techniques of a visual exhibition of tortures and violence.


Author(s):  
Greg Anderson

To conclude the book’ s alternative account of the Athenian politeia, the chapter offers a recursive analysis of the resource flows which made this way of life possible. The result is very different from a conventional modern secular economic analysis. Instead, it treats resource transactions as the lifeblood of a cosmic ecology that united gods, land, and people in a condition of symbiotic interdependency. The most important of all these transactions were those between gods and humans, whereby the latter received secure conditions of existence in exchange for temples, sacrifices, votive treasures, and other often costly ritual offerings. The most important of the resource transactions between humans were marriages, whereby the managerial and reproductive capacities of females were transferred from one household to another, thereby perpetuating the life of the social body. Contrary to the “egalitarian” ethos which moderns believe animated “democratic Athens,” demokratia would also have been unsustainable without the innumerable contributions of resources, material and otherwise, that were made by a relatively small number of super-wealthy Athenian households. And in a polis where members typically worked only for themselves, the existence of these ecologically essential super-wealthy households would have been unsustainable without the routine exploitation of slaves.


Author(s):  
Bart J. Wilson

What is property, and why does our species happen to have it? The Property Species explores how Homo sapiens acquires, perceives, and knows the custom of property, and why it might be relevant for understanding how property works in the twenty-first century. Arguing from some hard-to-dispute facts that neither the natural sciences nor the humanities—nor the social sciences squarely in the middle—are synthesizing a full account of property, this book offers a cross-disciplinary compromise that is sure to be controversial: All human beings and only human beings have property in things, and at its core, property rests on custom, not rights. Such an alternative to conventional thinking contends that the origins of property lie not in food, mates, territory, or land, but in the very human act of creating, with symbolic thought, something new that did not previously exist. Integrating cognitive linguistics with the philosophy of property and a fresh look at property disputes in the common law, this book makes the case that symbolic-thinking humans locate the meaning of property within a thing. The provocative implications are that property—not property rights—is an inherent fundamental principle of economics, and that legal realists and the bundle-of-sticks metaphor are wrong about the facts regarding property. Written by an economist who marvels at the natural history of humankind, the book is essential reading for experts and any reader who has wondered why people claim things as “Mine!,” and what that means for our humanity.


Author(s):  
Sarah Stewart-Kroeker

Christ’s healing of humanity consists, crucially, in forming human beings for loving relationship with himself and others. In this respect, Christ also takes the role of the beautiful beloved. Believers become pilgrims by falling in love with the beautiful Christ by the initiative of the Holy Spirit, who cleanses their eyes to see him as beautiful and enkindles desire in their hearts. By desiring and loving the beautiful Christ, the believer is conformed to him and learns to walk his path. Desiring the beautiful Christ forms a believing community shaped aesthetically and morally for a particular way of life: pilgrimage to the heavenly homeland. Formation is both earthly and eschatological, for so too is the journey and the activity of the pilgrim.


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