RETURN OF THE CULTURAL OBJECTS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW, EUROPEAN UNION LAW, AND LITHUANIAN LAW

The article examines the legal problems associated with the return of cultural objects in International, European Union, and Lithuanian Laws, as well as the extraterritorial application of mandatory norms. Particular importance is given to the influence of the UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects and the Directive 2014/60/EC on the return of cultural objects unlawfully removed from the territory of a Member State. Attention is paid to the correlation of civil law doctrines with the protection of the owner’s rights and the bona fide purchaser of a cultural object on the one hand, and International and European Laws about the return to the owner and compensation to the owner of a cultural object on the other hand, because Lithuanian legislation and case law do not apply the vindication doctrine to protect owner’s rights of cultural objects and thus differs from the traditional approach to solving the problems of returning cultural objects within the civil law framework. The article deals with the related problems of recognition of the owner’s rights and changes in the evidence presumptions. The issue of restoring the owner’s rights to illegally confiscated cultural objects during the existence of the USSR was decided in the practice of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania. Courts of general jurisdiction considered claims for the return of cultural objects belonging to foreign entities - the Federal Republic of Germany and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Particular importance was the question of the application of International and European Laws in judicial practice. According to the results of the study of the practice of the Republic of Lithuania, it is proposed to regard the return of cultural objects as an independent way of protecting the owner’s rights, which makes secondary the bona fide purchaser doctrine in relation of a cultural object.

Rumour – and (Dis)-Unities of Blackness: A Reading of Globalization in Mia Couto’s The Last Flight of the Flamingo

This article examines how Mia Couto uses representations of rumour in his novel The Last Flight of the Flamingo (2004) as a literary medium for interrogating detachment and/ or attachment of the cultural object/ subject of blackness to modern institutions of Africa and the West through the idea of globalization. The article uses the qualitative research methodology for interrogating the efficacy of the representations of rumour in portraying the idea of globalisation. Through textual analysis, the article examines how the author uses the detached large male sexual organ, discovered outside Tizangara, an imagined remote Mozambican town, to encapsulate the rumour about the cases of some missing United Nations peacekeeping soldiers to the fictionalized idea of globalisation. The United Nations’ commissioned inquiry on the missing soldiers precipitates a parading of the local, national and the international delegation around the severed male sexual organ.

BATU NISAN TIPE LAMURI – ‘PLANGPLENG’ GANO – LAMDINGIN

Tombstone type plangpleng is a type of tombstone typology from Aceh that has not been widely known and understood, compared to the type of Acehnese tombology or 'Aceh Batu'. The shape of the tombstone and the shape of the motive form, as well as this tombstone chisel style that distinguishes it with other tombstone typologies in Aceh. Local motif themes combined with the themes of adoption from the outside then transformed well from the Hindu-Buddha-Buddha tradition and the Islamic world arts tradition combined here. This collection of tombstones was found in many places in Aceh Besar and Banda Aceh, although in limited quantities. (Simpang) Gano-Lamdingin One of the locations known to have the type of ancient tomb findings like this. The beginning of the presence of Muslim communities with Islamic government systems was reflected in the heritage of this cultural object. The kings built a tomb monument with markers of this type of tombstone. Batu nisan tipe ‘plakpleng’ merupakan satu jenis dari tipologi batu nisan dari Aceh yang belum banyak dikenal dan dipahami, bila dibandingkan jenis tipologi batu nisan Aceh atau ‘Batu Aceh’. Bentuk batu nisan dan rangcangan bentuk motif, serta gaya seni pahat batu nisan ini yang membedakannya dengan tipologi batu nisan yang lain di Aceh. Tema-tema motif lokal dipadukan dengan tema-tema adopsi dari luar lalu ditransformasikan baik yang berasal dari tradisi Hindu-Buddha Asia Selatan dan tradisi kesenian dunia Islam berpadu di sini. Kumpulan batu nisan ini ditemukan dibanyak tempat di Aceh Besar dan Banda Aceh, walau dalam jumlah terbatas. (Simpang) Gano-Lamdingin salah satu lokasi yang diketahui memiliki jenis temuan makam kuno seperti ini. Awal kehadiran masyarakat muslim dengan sistem pemerintahan Islam tercermin dari warisan benda budaya ini. Para merah atau raja-raja kecil membangun monumen makam dengan penanda dari jenis batu nisan ini.

‘A Likeness made From First Hand Witness’?: The Discursive Position of a Purported Crazy Horse Photograph

<p>This dissertation is concerned with the ways in which photographs are discursively deployed and used in the writing of history. More specifically, it will consider how photos, and the historical, scientific, ethnographic and romantic discourses surrounding them, are used to erase or ‘make safe’ the traces of the radical resistances of dominated groups within colonial frameworks. The case explored here concerns the tintype photograph claimed as being of the Lakota chief and warrior Crazy Horse (c.1840-1877). Exhibited by the Custer Battlefield Museum in Montana, the claim that this photograph is of Crazy Horse is controversial. It is generally thought that no visual likeness of Crazy Horse exists; and his refusal to be photographed can be read as a practice of opposition to his assimilation into colonial narratives and accounts of American frontier history. In claiming the photo to be of Crazy Horse, the history of his resistance is rewritten and repositioned. This changes the way he becomes knowable and understandable within the contexts of (neo)colonial discourses and narratives, in which Native Americans are often relegated to the past, and appear either as casualties of the policies of Manifest Destiny, or as a romantic other which has been symbolically integrated into American mythic culture. This dissertation focuses on how the claim that this photograph is of Crazy Horse is made, and how the various associated cultural fields (photography, historiography, museology) are affected by, and play into, such a claim. This involves identifying the discursive processes and disciplinary mechanisms through which meaning is produced in relation to a particular cultural object. It considers the supposed photograph of Crazy Horse as an example of how history assigns significance to objects “in terms of the possibilities they generate for producing or transforming reality” (de Certeau, 1986:202), rather than as representations or reflections of reality.</p>

‘A Likeness made From First Hand Witness’?: The Discursive Position of a Purported Crazy Horse Photograph

<p>This dissertation is concerned with the ways in which photographs are discursively deployed and used in the writing of history. More specifically, it will consider how photos, and the historical, scientific, ethnographic and romantic discourses surrounding them, are used to erase or ‘make safe’ the traces of the radical resistances of dominated groups within colonial frameworks. The case explored here concerns the tintype photograph claimed as being of the Lakota chief and warrior Crazy Horse (c.1840-1877). Exhibited by the Custer Battlefield Museum in Montana, the claim that this photograph is of Crazy Horse is controversial. It is generally thought that no visual likeness of Crazy Horse exists; and his refusal to be photographed can be read as a practice of opposition to his assimilation into colonial narratives and accounts of American frontier history. In claiming the photo to be of Crazy Horse, the history of his resistance is rewritten and repositioned. This changes the way he becomes knowable and understandable within the contexts of (neo)colonial discourses and narratives, in which Native Americans are often relegated to the past, and appear either as casualties of the policies of Manifest Destiny, or as a romantic other which has been symbolically integrated into American mythic culture. This dissertation focuses on how the claim that this photograph is of Crazy Horse is made, and how the various associated cultural fields (photography, historiography, museology) are affected by, and play into, such a claim. This involves identifying the discursive processes and disciplinary mechanisms through which meaning is produced in relation to a particular cultural object. It considers the supposed photograph of Crazy Horse as an example of how history assigns significance to objects “in terms of the possibilities they generate for producing or transforming reality” (de Certeau, 1986:202), rather than as representations or reflections of reality.</p>

Talk of Markets

This paper examines “market talk” as a pervasive and flexible cultural tool. We analyze two cases in which the market is invoked as a justification: employers’ pay-setting practices and the exclusion of unpaid housework from calculations of gross domestic product. Employers interpret a candidate’s past salary as “the market price” indicating that individual's value, and thus use salary history as the basis for salary offers. National income statisticians argue that the absence of market prices for housework renders housewives' true economic value uncalculable. We identify three key features of market talk: authority, credibility, and accessibility. These features offer a framework for understanding why actors invoke markets and with what effects. Beyond understanding how culture constitutes or affects markets, economic sociology must also understand the market as a cultural object and, in particular, as a potent and gendered form of justification.

It’s (not) like the flu: Resonant Expertise and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and the United States

Why did societies respond to COVID-19 differently? Unlike popular explanations relying on political or cultural differences, we examine the role that experts and expertise play in shaping the initial responses to COVID-19. We ask three specific questions: (1) Who were the COVID-19 experts, (2) How was expertise mobilized to understand the emerging threat of COVID-19, and (3) How did these expert statements resonate with policymakers and publics in different political contexts? Through our three-case comparison of Mainland China, Hong Kong, and the United States, we show how past experiences with disease outbreaks shaped how experts deployed their expertise to make sense of the emerging crisis. Furthermore, past experiences with disease outbreaks also shape how these forms of expertise become resonant with policymakers and publics, as the past itself becomes a cultural object that is mobilized, contested, and seen as potentially useful to solve the problem of COVID-19. We argue that the process of resonant expertise played a key role in coming up with effective policies to tackle COVID-19.

October culture : photographic theory and the beginnings of postmodernism

This thesis explores the birth of the journal October, in its context of late 1970s academia and the decline of modernist criticism in the United States. It analyses three articles first published in October: Rosalind Krauss's two part "Notes on the index: seventies in art America" (spring/fall 1976), Thierry de Duve's "Time exposure and snapshot: the photograph as paradox" (summer 1978), and Douglas Crimp's "The photographic activity of postmodernism" (winter 1980). The thesis attempts to understand the key role played by October in changing our understanding of photography as an artistic practice and cultural object by discussing the position of October in the creation of photographic theory and the function of photographic theory in the critique of modernism that has come to be known as postmodernism.

October culture : photographic theory and the beginnings of postmodernism

This thesis explores the birth of the journal October, in its context of late 1970s academia and the decline of modernist criticism in the United States. It analyses three articles first published in October: Rosalind Krauss's two part "Notes on the index: seventies in art America" (spring/fall 1976), Thierry de Duve's "Time exposure and snapshot: the photograph as paradox" (summer 1978), and Douglas Crimp's "The photographic activity of postmodernism" (winter 1980). The thesis attempts to understand the key role played by October in changing our understanding of photography as an artistic practice and cultural object by discussing the position of October in the creation of photographic theory and the function of photographic theory in the critique of modernism that has come to be known as postmodernism.

Photographs On A Refrigerator : A Display Of Visual Culture

This project will focus on family based vernacular photography and modes of display, with specific attention paid to the household refrigerator as a framing device. Photographs on refrigerators are in many North American homes. Since the invention of photography, the home has and continues to be an area of display for vernacular family photographs. These displays of family photographs are important to consider because they are an example of how people use photographs in their everyday lives, and provide a representation of a family, generation and culture. This investigation will show that people display similar photographs for similar reasons, and that photographs are a common form of record making and celebration for families. Finally, this project will address vernacular photographs within the context of institutional collections. What collecting biases do vernacular photographs confront, and how does the commonality of vernacular photographs raise new questions about institutional collection practices based on the rarified and the valuable cultural object?