scholarly journals Regional Identity and Multiculturalism: the Baltic Germans of Latgale in the Early 20th Century Latvian Literature

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (45) ◽  
pp. 74-85
Author(s):  
Alina Romanovska

In the studies of Latvian culture and history, there is a number of investigations dedicated to the influence of Baltic German culture on Latvian culture. Hence the Latgale region was not given due attention in this regard. The role of the Baltic Germans in this region is peculiar due to its specific history, and it is important to study how the Baltic German culture influences the multicultural identity of Latgale. A project of the Latvian Science Council The Baltic Germans of Latgale in the context of socio-ethnic relations from the 17th until the beginning of the 20th century (2020–2021) is devoted to this topic. One of the tasks of the project is the analysis of the image of the Baltic Germans in fiction. In the framework of the research, the works written in the Latvian literary language, the action of which is set in Latgale, are analysed. The focus is on fictional works about Latgale written by two authors – Antons Austriņš (1884–1934) and Ādolfs Ers (1885–1945) – in the first and second decades of the 20th century. The said writers are the first currently distinguished authors narrating in the Latvian literary language, who describe Latgale in a number of their works. Compared to other nationalities (Poles, Russians, Jews), the Baltic Germans are mentioned minimally in their works; moreover, it is a commonplace that in some cases protagonist’s belonging to German descent is not mentioned, which can only be inferred. Although the Baltic Germans belong to the Latgale past, their culture is imperceptibly and harmoniously apparent in Latgale, i.e. it is evident in the castles (castle ruins) and manors as well as in the use of Germanisms by the Baltic Germans, it has determined the location of the Latgale cities and influenced the worldview.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-47
Author(s):  
Chinpulat Kurbanov ◽  

The author in this scientific article examines the stage-by-stage development and formation of customs in Turkestan in the second half of the 19th -early 20th centuries. The author studied the history of customs in Turkestan and its role in establishing a single customs line in the future with neighboring khanates. The author focuses on the role of Russia in the establishment of a single customs line and the development of customs in Turkestan


2021 ◽  
pp. 135406612110338
Author(s):  
Joanne Yao

The Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), created in 1959 to govern the southern continent, is often lauded as an illustration of science’s potential to inspire peaceful and rational International Relations. This article critically examines this optimistic view of science’s role in international politics by focusing on how science as a global hierarchical structure operated as a gatekeeper to an exclusive Antarctic club. I argue that in the early 20th century, the conduct of science in Antarctica was entwined with global and imperial hierarchies. As what Mattern and Zarakol call a broad hierarchy, science worked both as a civilized marker of international status as well as a social performance that legitimated actors’ imperial interests in Antarctica. The 1959 ATS relied on science as an existing broad hierarchy to enable competing states to achieve a functional bargain and ‘freeze’ sovereignty claims, whilst at the same time institutionalizing and reinforcing the legitimacy of science in maintaining international inequalities. In making this argument, I stress the role of formal international institutions in bridging our analysis of broad and functional hierarchies while also highlighting the importance of scientific hierarchies in constituting the current international order.


2015 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Semi Purhonen

This article first examines the role of the concept of generation in Pierre Bourdieu’s work. It shows that Bourdieu’s usage of the concept of generation varied throughout his œuvre and that Bourdieu seldom if ever used the concept in the same sense as Karl Mannheim and many subsequent sociologists who have understood generation as a potential source of identity and political mobilization. However, and second, the article argues that Bourdieu’s sociology does have much to offer for the sociological study of generations, but only if we stop concentrating on those rare passages in which he explicitly used the word ‘generation’. We should focus instead on his more general approach to the genesis of social groupings, classification struggles and the difficult relationships of representation. The application and extension of Bourdieu’s ideas demonstrated here can provide a welcome antidote to so-called generationalism – a simplified and exaggerated picture of generations, which dates back to early 20th-century European intellectuals and which can still be found in today’s popular discourses as well as in academic studies.


2022 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 109-119
Author(s):  
S. E. Azhigali ◽  
L. R. Turganbayeva

This is the fi rst description of a key Kazakh recent permanent settlement at Donyztau, in the northern Ustyurt. Such sites, evidencing major historical processes during the transition of nomadic pastoralists to a semi-sedentary lifestyle (mid-19th to early 20th century), are known as “ritual and housing complexes” (RHC). Kainar, a highly representative site, is viewed as a socio-cultural phenomenon and an integral architectural and landscape ensemble. The excavation history of RHCs in the Donyztau area and their evolution are discussed, and the role of ascetics such as Doszhan-Ishan Kashakuly is described. We highlight separate parts of the complex (the settlement and cemetery) and their elements. The architecture of the RHC is reconstructed with regard to structure, function, and continuity with the landscape. The layout of the site as a whole and of the madrasah with its typical elements are compared with those of similar sites in Central Asia and Kazakhstan. A reconstruction of the complex is proposed and the function of public halls is interpreted. The role of the cemetery and of its parts in the structure of the RHC is evaluated; the evolution of its spatial organization is traced. Types of memorial complexes are listed in terms of harmony with the landscape, archaic beliefs, architecture, and style, specifi cally stone carving. The historical and cultural signifi cance of Kainar as a source of knowledge about the transition to a semi-sedentary way of life and the Islamization of the steppe is discussed.


2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 11-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Terry

With a detailed but not site-specific building program, the librarians at Rhode Island School of Design made the case for a new library three times the size of the existing facility. The site became specific with the donation of an early 20th-century grand banking hall. This paper addresses the role of the librarian in the design and construction process and includes an analysis of the way the new library meets the program objectives. In the early 1990’s after several early attempts to resolve the library’s space constraint at Rhode Island School of Design, the librarian was given a useful bit of advice: Stop trying to find the space. You must focus first on the program. What is it that you really need?


2002 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-150
Author(s):  
Kamran Arjomand

Intellectual history of modernism in Iran has proved to be a subject of lively academic interest. The role of Iranian exiles in late 19th and early 20th century, in particular, has drawn considerable scholarly attention. In recent years, the Iranian press in exile has also become a focus of academic scrutiny. In Germany, Anja Pistor-Hatam has studied the Iranian intellectual community in Istanbul around the newspaper Akhtar (Nachrichtenblatt, Informationsbörse und Diskussionsforum: Ahtar-e Estānbūl (1876–1896)—Anstöße zur frühen persischen Moderne [Münster, 1999]) and Keivandokht Ghahari's doctoral dissertation is concerned with ideas of nationalism and modernism among Iranian intellectuals in Berlin as reflected in the journals Kâveh, Iranshahr, and Ayandeh (Nationalismus und Modernismus in Iran in der Periode zwischen dem Zerfall der Qāğāren-Dynastie und der Machtfestigung Reżā Schah [Berlin, 2001]). In this context, the bibliography of Kâveh is thus a welcomed contribution.


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