POWER GAMES IN THE MEN’S SUBCULTURE OF THE TRADITIONAL OSSETIAN SOCIETY

Мировоззренческие установки, характерные для мужской субкультуры, являются важными элементами духовной культуры традиционного общества. В силу доминирующего положения мужчин в традиционном обществе их система ценностей оказывала большое влияние на весь социум. Мужские ценности и нормы поведения, характерные для традиционного общества, в трансформированном виде существуют и в современном обществе. Вследствие этого комплексное исследование мужской субкультуры прошлого необходимо для объективного понимания путей развития и выявления скрытых тенденций в эволюции современного общества. В значительной мере мужская субкультура отражена в бытовавших среди мужского населения каждого этноса традиционных играх, забавах и развлечениях. В предлагаемой статье на осетинском материале рассмотрены традиционные силовые игры как один из аспектов мужской субкультуры. Научная новизна определяется тем, что настоящая работа является первым комплексным исследованием мужских силовых игр у осетин. Источниками при разработке поставленной проблемы послужили этнографический материал, фольклорные тексты и данные осетинского языка. В ходе исследования рассмотрены бытовавшие в прошлом у осетин игры и состязания, требовавшие от участников значительной физической активности, мышечной силы и силы духа. Выявлены варианты некоторых из рассматриваемых игр и состязаний и их деление на индивидуальные, парные и групповые. Определены место и роль силовых игр и состязаний в мужской субкультуре осетин. Рассмотрены стереотипы поведения мужчин при проведении различных силовых состязаний. Установлено воздействие силовых игр на упрочение мужской коллективной идентичности в традиционном обществе. Обосновано наличие тесной связи между мужскими силовыми играми и магическо-ритуальными церемониями в традиционном осетинском обществе. The ideological attitudes characteristic of the men’s subculture are important elements in the structure of traditional society. Due to the dominant position of men in a traditional society, their value system exerted great influence on the entire society. Men’s values and norms of behavior characteristic of a traditional society in a transformed form exist in the modern society as well. As a result, a comprehensive study of the men’s subculture of the past is necessary for an objective understanding of the ways of development and identification of hidden trends in the evolution of modern society. To a large extent, the men’s subculture is reflected in traditional games, amusements and entertainment that existed among the men’s population of each ethnic group. This article examines traditional power games as one of the aspects of the men’s subculture based on the Ossetian material. The scientific novelty is determined by the fact that this work is the first comprehensive study of men’s power games among the Ossetians. Ethnographic material, folklore texts and data of the Ossetian language served as the sources for the development of the problem. In the course of the research, the Ossetians in the past were considered games and competitions, which required from the participants significant physical activity, muscle strength and fortitude. Variants of some of the games and competitions under consideration have been established and their division into individual, pair and group ones. The place and role of power games and competitions in the men’s subculture of Ossetians has been determined. Stereotypes of men's behavior during various power competitions are considered. The influence of power games on strengthening men’s collective identity in the traditional society has been established. The presence of a close connection between men’s power games and magic-ritual ceremonies in the traditional Ossetian society was revealed.

INTERNATIONAL ACTORS’ NUCLEAR RETHORIC – A PERPETUAL DILEMMA AND VARIOUS STANCES

Actors struggle in the nuclear power games is more symbolic one, due to the fact that it is believed that a nuclear attack nowadays is not likely to happen, since it is generally-accepted that nations cannot reliably defend against a nuclear attack by using traditional means. Therefore, the present paper aims to emphasize the role of actors’ nuclear rethoric in pursuing nuclear objectives. The document analyzes the nuclear doctrine of the first three most powerful nuclear-states, highlighting the potential of strategic communication.

POLITICS AND POWER IN MALTESE PROVERBS AND IDIOMS / IL-POLITIKA U L-POTER FIL-PROVERBJI U L-IDJOMI MALTIN

Given its centuries-old origins and the inimitable mix of Semitic and Latinized vocabulary, the Maltese language benefits from a massive repertoire of proverbs and idioms that interpret life realities from the perspective of the common folks. The scope of this paper is to decipher a number of Maltese proverbs and idioms that encompass elements of political power and control. Each selected expression is probed in terms of political theory and contextualized from a sociological and anthropological standpoint. Such an analysis provides a cornucopia of diachronic and synchronic insights on how the Maltese perceive power and manipulation, judge the elites and the privileged, assess the art of politics and treat patronage and clientelism. “The wit of one and the wisdom of many” has organically led them to affirm their conviction that power manipulation, greed and elite collegiality, distortion of political virtues and exploitation of power games to the leverage of both the disadvantaged and the privileged are universal realities. In other words, these phenomena involving power and politics exist independently of the locals’ perceptions or interpretations. Bħala lingwa millenarja b’influwenzi mill-ilsna semitiċi u Latini, il-Malti għandu repertorju għani ta’ proverbji u idjomi li jinterpretaw ir-realtajiet tal-ħajja minn għajnejn il-popolin. L-iskop ta’ din ir-riċerka huwa li janalizza għadd minn dawn il-proverbji u idjomi li jinkorporaw aspetti marbutin mal-politika, il-poter u l-kontroll tal-massa mill-elit. Kull proverbju magħżul huwa diskuss fil-qafas tat-teorija politika u kuntestwalizzat mil-lat soċjoloġiku u antropoloġiku. Din l-analiżi ssawwar riflessjonijiet dijakroniċi u sinkroniċi ta’ kif il-Maltin jaħsbuha dwar il-poter u l-manipulazzjoni tal-massa, kif jiġġudikaw l-elit u l-klassi pprivileġġjata, kif jassessjaw l-arti politika u kif jitrattaw il-patrunaġġ u l-klijentaliżmu. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0783/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

“Você me paga, bandido!”: Cruzamentos dialógicos entre narrativa literária e judicial de violência doméstica

This article explores parallels between literary narratives and judicialnarratives about domestic violence, based on the Bakhtinian dialogic concept oflanguage. The article takes the short story “Você me paga, bandido!” by DaltonTrevisan and compares and contrasts it with narrative excerpts from judgmentsof the Superior Court of Justice concerned with the ‘Maria da Penha’ Law. Thisdiscursive-literary approach discusses gender issues that permeate domestic vio-lence in Brazil and its treatment by the legal system after the advent of this law.The analyses explore more recurrent dialogical links that permeate the narratives,such as guilt mitigation, power games, notions of jealousy, honor, drunkenness,male dignity, female resistance and the trivialization of violence. We believe thatthe discursive-literary approach developed here can support interdisciplinary ac-tion both in the penal treatment of domestic violence, and in its prevention througheducational measures.

‘We are doing better’: Biopolitical nationalism and the COVID-19 virus in East Asia

The COVID-19 pandemic stirs up strong nationalist and localist sentiments; places pride themselves on containing the virus more effectively: We are doing better. We call this ‘biopolitical nationalism’, understood by us as the dynamics between body, geopolitics and affect. When looking at mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, we analyse how the biopolitical efforts of these places are being compared, applauded and supported. Under a discourse of life and survival, this celebration of biopolitical control does not fall into the classic reproduction of capital, but speaks to geopolitical identification. Biopolitics has morphed into a field of competition, of rivalry, of nationalistic – or, perhaps more generally, localist – power games. What can we do as Cultural Studies scholars?

Poetry as method – trying to see the world differently

Research with communities, even co-produced research with a commitment to social justice, can be limited by its expression in conventional disciplinary language and format. Vibrant, warm and sometimes complex encounters with community partners become contained through the gesture of representation. In this sense, 'writing up' can actually become a kind of slow violence towards participants, projects and ourselves. As a less conventional and containable form of expression, poetry offers an alternative to the power games of researching 'on' communities and writing it up. It is excessive in the sense that it goes beyond the cycles of reduction and representation, allowing the expression of subjective (and perhaps sometimes even contradictory) impressions from participants. In this cowritten paper we explore poetry as a social research method through subjective testimony and in the light of our Connected Communities-funded projects (Imagine, Threads of Time and Taking Yourself Seriously), where poetry as method came to the fore as a way of hearing and representing voices differently.