scholarly journals Making an Ethnic Group: Lemko-Rusyns and the Minority Question in the Second Polish Republic

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 386-410
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Pasieka

Drawing on ethnographic and archival materials, this paper examines the ethnic politics of the Second Polish Republic by taking into account the experiences of the Lemko-Rusyn population, a minority East Slavic group inhabiting the peripheral mountainous area in southern Poland. It illustrates the changing policies towards Lemko-Rusyns and discusses the different responses of the local population to these policies, demonstrating the inadequacy of categories imposed from above as well as manifold motivations behind people's political views, choices of national identification, and religious conversions. In so doing, the article has three main objectives. First, in line with recent critical scholarship on nationalism in the Second Polish Republic, it attempts to problematize the – frequently exaggerated – difference between ‘federational’ and ‘assimilationist’ conceptions, exposing the discriminatory nature of interwar minority politics, as experienced locally. Second, moving beyond the interwar period, the article presents the long-term consequences of the interwar policies and the events of the Second World War, including a series of ethnic cleansings that took place in the aftermath of the war as well as present-day discourses on and policies towards ethnic and national minorities. And third, in discussing state actors' agency in the domain of minority policies, it calls for a more thorough recognition of the agency of the people who are the target of those policies. The article considers all these issues by presenting a history of a Lemko-Rusyn locality and its inhabitants, as recorded in school records, state reports, and oral histories.

2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Adu-Gyamfi ◽  
Razak Mohammed Gyasi ◽  
Dennis Baffour Awuah ◽  
Richard Oware ◽  
Samuel Kwame Ampadu

AbstractThis study focuses on Western medical practices in the Atiwa District of Ghana. The people of Atiwa District accessed Western medicinal practice to prevent and cure diseases. Before the advent of Western medical practice in the Atiwa District, people were unable to access Western medicine due to the challenges with travelling or trekking from rural communities to the towns where they would find limited Western oriented health centres/hospitals. Although there were challenges, the local population continued to highly embrace practitioners and also accessed the basic Western oriented medical facilities. Western medical strategies were used to combat skin diseases, stomach aches, and malaria that was prevalent in the Atiwa District. The other diseases which afflicted the people and which required urgent attention included cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM), tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS among others. Findings from the study revealed that the introduction and success of western medical practice in the Atiwa District could not have been possible without a positive reception from the indigenous people. Importantly, this study has projected the relevance of public health in the history of the people of Atiwa and the significant roles played by governments to ensure the promotion of good health at the District.


2020 ◽  
pp. 60-64
Author(s):  
G.N. Khisamieva

The relevance of the study lies in the fact that the national and cultural life of the Tatar diaspora in the Northwest China has not been the subject of the research. The research interest is also caused by the fact that the history of the formation and development of the Tatar diaspora, every day, spiritual, educational and cultural life has not been studied at all and is of particular interest to researchers. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that the article examines the process of formation of Tatar theaters and string orchestras in the cities of Kuldzha and Chuguchak for the first time, where the bulk of Tatar emigrants lived. Particular attention was paid to the role of Tatar theaters in the life of indigenous and visiting peoples of the XUAR of the PRC. The purpose of the work is to study and systematize the national and cultural life of the Tatars of Xinjiang. As a result of the study, it can be concluded that the creation of theaters and string orchestras has contributed to the rallying of the Tatars, as well as the preservation of the native language, literature, traditions, culture and identity of the people, which is also a very important factor in preserving identity among the local population of Xinjiang.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-93
Author(s):  
Jayashree Borah

The river Brahmaputra, also known as Luit, has always occupied an important place in the cultural mindscape of the people of Assam, a state in the northeast of India. A source of great pride because of its sheer size and the myths and lore associated with it, it has nevertheless brought untold misery to people over the years because of annual flooding. Authors and musicians of the land have found in the Luit an apt metaphor to tell stories of love, loss, belonging and pain. In the songs of Bhupen Hazarika (1926-2011), a renowned music composer from Assam, the Brahmaputra becomes a character through which the poet expresses both his anguish at the sufferings of the masses and his joy at the all- embracing nature of the valley. In songs like “Mahabahu Brahmaputra”, Hazarika tries to appeal to the people of Assam to maintain harmony and promote the land as one of plurality and hospitality. This song becomes significant when seen in the context of the Assam movement (a six-year long agitation to halt the illegal migration of people from neighbouring Bangladesh) and Hazarika’s own conflicted attitude towards it. This article is an attempt to examine how the Luit has been represented in a selection of Hazarika’s songs – the ways the river becomes a potent presence of deeply political and social overtones and a metaphor to underscore the turbulent history of Assam.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 555-560
Author(s):  
J. Dalakian

This article is dedicated to the history of formation of the Armenian diaspora in the Republic of Uzbekistan and its contribution to the socio–economic transformation of the country. Major attention in the article is paid to legal aspects of ethnic politics, provision equal opportunities of developing all the people inhabiting Uzbekistan. Special attention is paid to the establishment and development of national cultural centers that promote indigenous culture and traditions, contacting with their historical homeland, on the example of the Armenian diaspora.


Author(s):  
Haiyi Wang ◽  

During the time that George Orwell lived, the Britain society was on the edge of development and fluctuation, the north-south divide was an issue discussed by journalists and politics, nationally and regionally. George Orwell, by traveling up and down in the whole English territory, wrote down what exactly he saw and experienced in 1930s. In Road to Wigan Pier, he depicted the unemployment and living conditions in North of England, as well as the class division and his potential political views. Road to Wigan Pier influences historical and literature scholars and triggers huge amount of debates on the politics, economy and history of England. Most importantly, it is both a mirror of England in 1930s and a future-teller of the modern society that we are living in. As Benjamin Jonson has claimed, “ He was not of an age, but for all time!”. Most scholars consider the novel is in two parts: the first is the people he met and his physical experience in Wigan, Barnsley and Sheffield (the north). The second is his critical view on socialism in England and the middle class. In Road to Wigan Pier, and contemplating his personal background, what we can conclude is that George Orwell is a novelist, and he is neither a “north” nor a “south”. We have no persuading reasons of his work is not as the same value as those first-hand such as scientific data and photography. However, it is worth analysing his work with the record of the broad social condition in England. As a novelist and an outsider, we can see from the whole novel Road to Wigan Pier that he has his own perspectives on “northernness” from the aspects of employment, working-class and class difference. All these comments of George Orwell, since subjective and personal, especially trigger the politics’ thinking and the improve the social research orientation.


Author(s):  
Marianna H. Zagazezheva

The article examines the features of the Adyghe-Russian relations in the works of the Adyghe educators. Their lives, activities, and socio-political views indicate the complexity and ambiguity of the Adyghe-Russian relations at all stages of their historical interaction. The history of relations between the Adyghes and Russia is full of both military clashes and periods of military cooperation, processes of rapprochement and mutual cultural enrichment. The author formulated and substantiated the idea that the historical context played the main role in the development of the views of the Adyghe enlighteners. The main feature of the worldview of the representatives of the Adyghe intelligentsia - duality is revealed. This was due to the simultaneous belonging of the Adyghe enlighteners to two cultures: Adyghe and Russian. Adyghe enlighteners advocated the integration of the people into the Russian Empire, but openly criticized the military-power methods of conquering the Adyghes. They proposed a number of measures for the peaceful integration of Circassians into the territorial, political, legal and cultural space of Russia, while preserving their national identity.


1999 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 389-416 ◽  
Author(s):  

AbstractThe Versailles Treaty sought to protect minorities by giving them their own state. This practice, labelled 'self-determination' has changed guise considerably post World War II. Paramount to the emancipation of colonies, it came to be the concept that legitimated the 'rule of the people' over that of their colonial masters. However post-colonial 'self-determined' states are often manufactured entities forced into the strait-jacket of Westphalian statehood; and unlike the states that emanated from the Westphalian Treaty, were given no time to evolve by themselves. As a result these states often house disparate sets of minorities that go unrepresented within the Statist discourse. Further, these states have attempted to suppress their minorities through the various policies associated with nation-building. Today, with secession an increasingly attainable form of self-determination, the question arises as to whether these minorities have a right to form a separate state. The international law of self-determination suggests that this is a right of all peoples. It however leaves the parameters of this 'peoplehood' undefined. This paper seeks to examine the discourse of minority rights within that of the international right to self determination. It seeks to trace the history of minority rights protection, and to examine the way in which minority rights are protected within current international law. In addition, it examines the parameters of peoplehood and concludes by looking at two cases where disaffected minorities in a post-colonial state sought to form their own state.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 208-213
Author(s):  
E.-B. M. Guchinova ◽  

This publication is devoted to an important period in the history of Kalmykia, but not yet sufficiently studied by anthropologists and sociologists - the deportation of the people to Siberia (1943–1956), and the memory of this. The goals and objectives of the publication are to show the role of the oral history method in the study of the daily survival practices of Kalmyks in Siberia, as well as the specifics of the Kalmyk narrative of deportation, which reflects the social dynamics of relations between repressed Kalmyks and the local population, from the first meeting, part of the traumatic one to subsequent friendships. The author shows examples of positive work with a traumatic past that is reflected in the Trains of Memory and focuses the work of a grateful memory.


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Herwig Czech ◽  
Christiane Druml ◽  
Wolfgang J. Weninger ◽  
Markus Müller

Thanks to a recent donation by Elsevier, the Medical University of Vienna now holds in its collections the known existing original paintings for Eduard Pernkopf's Atlas of Topographic and Applied Human Anatomy. This atlas is widely considered a pinnacle of the art of anatomical illustration. However, it is severely tainted by its historical origins. Pernkopf was a high-ranking National Socialist and co-responsible for the expulsion of hundreds of Jewish scientists and students from the university. Also, the Vienna Institute of Anatomy, which Pernkopf headed, received during the war the bodies of at least 1377 people executed by the regime, many for their political views or acts of resistance, including at least seven Jewish victims. Although it is impossible to individually identify the people used for the atlas, it is to be assumed that a considerable number of the paintings produced during and after the war are based on the bodies of these victims. Against this background, and out of respect for the victims, use of Pernkopf's atlas in medical teaching and training should be — wherever possible without compromising medical outcomes — reduced to a minimum. Given the strong variability of human anatomy, even the most detailed anatomical illustrations cannot replace teaching and training in the dissection room. As the experience at the Medical University of Vienna and elsewhere demonstrates, Pernkopf's atlas is far from irreplaceable. In keeping with the stipulations of the contract of donation, the Medical University of Vienna considers the Pernkopf originals primarily as historical artifacts, which will support the investigation and teaching of this dark chapter of the history of medicine in Austria, out of responsibility towards the victims. Table of Contents image credit: Medical University of Vienna, MUW-AD-003250-5-ABB-352


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