THE IMAGE OF TATTA LAND AND YAKUTSK CITY IN THE FORMATION OF FIGURATIVE GEOGRAPHY IN THE EARLY 21 ST CENTURY

Актуальность темы связана с новыми методологическими подходами в исследовании современной культуры Якутии начала 21 века. Авторы попытались применить метод междисциплинарного подхода в исследовании образной географии Якутии начала 21 века на примере проекта «Образная карта - маршрут Таттинского улуса». Город и село в 20 веке являются разными средами обитания современного человека. В первой среде зарождается креативная культура, а во второй - дольше сохраняется традиционная культура. Трансформация традиционной культуры в начале 20 века в городе Якутске привело к зарождению нового креативного типа культуры, а в конце 20 века в постсоветском пространстве формируется образная география конкретного региона или улуса, стянув пространство ландшафта и памятников культурного наследия, что ярко прослеживается на материале Таттинского улуса. The relevance of the topic is related to new methodological approaches in the study of modern culture of Yakutia in the early 21st century. The authors tried to apply the method of an interdisciplinary approach in the study of the figurative geography of Yakutia of the early 20th century by the example of the project "Figurative map - the route of Tatta ulus". City and village in the 20th century are different environments of a modern man. In the first environment, creative culture is born, and in the second, traditional culture is preserved longer. Transformation of traditional culture at the beginning of the 20th century in Yakutsk city led to the birth of a new creative type of culture, and at the end of the 20th century, in the post-Soviet space, a figurative geography of a specific region is formed, pulling together the space of the landscape and cultural heritage monuments, which is clearly seen in the material of Tatta ulus.

Assam

Assam constitutes the region of northeast India bounded by the modern nations of Bangladesh and Bhutan, as well as by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Bangla, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Nagaland. Known in ancient sources as Prāgjyotiṣpūra (the “city of eastern lights”) and as Kāmarūpa (the “form” or “place of desire”), Assam remains one of the least studied and poorly understood areas of South Asian Hinduism. The home to more than forty recognized tribal communities, Assam has tremendous religious, ethnic, and linguistic diversity, which has helped shape the unique forms of Hinduism that have flourished in the region. Moreover, Assam also has a long reputation as a realm of magic, witchcraft, and the supernatural; for example, even in the early 21st century, the town of Mayong in Morigaon district is infamous as the quintessential “land of black magic.” The historical roots of Hinduism in Assam date back to at least the Varman dynasty of the 4th to 7th centuries, when Vedic sacrifices such as the aśvamedha and other Brahmanical rites were widespread. However, most of the kings of Assam from the Varmans onward came from non-Hindu tribal backgrounds, and the form of Hinduism that developed in the region has long been a complex negotiation between Sanskritic traditions and indigenous practices from the many local communities of the region. During the Assamese Pāla dynasty of the 8th to 12th centuries, Śākta traditions became dominant, and major texts such as the Kālikā Purāṇa were composed, praising the great mother goddess Kāmākhyā (goddess of desire) and her retinue of yoginīs. A unique form of Hindu tantra probably also began to flourish at this time, and Assam has a long reputation as one of the oldest heartlands or perhaps even the original homeland of tantra in South Asia. The Ahom kings of the 13th to 19th centuries continued the patronage of powerful goddesses while also building temples to Śiva, Viṣṇu, and others. During the 16th century, Assam like much of northern India witnessed a powerful revival of Vaiṣṇava bhakti, led by the devotional reformer Śaṅkaradeva (b. 1449–d. 1568). Through Śaṅkaradeva’s influence, Vaiṣṇavism remains a dominant cultural and religious force in Assam to this day. However, even in the 21st century, Assamese Hinduism remains incredibly diverse, and one can still see a wide range of indigenous, folk, and local practices that range from magic and menstruation festivals to spirit possession and ecstatic dance performances.

New York City

The island of Manhattan is one of five boroughs that comprises modern-day New York City. Joining the neighboring boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island, the City of New York was consolidated as such in 1898. While part of a larger whole, “New York City architecture” typically refers to the built environment of Manhattan. Indeed, the iconic image of contemporary New York City is the Manhattan skyline. Its tall buildings have historically been concentrated in the Financial District on the southern tip of the island, and in Midtown, although recent developments have seen these traditional boundaries expand northward and to the outer boroughs. By the early 1700s, the Native Lenape population had largely been displaced by colonists—first the Dutch, who named their community on the southern tip of Manhattan New Amsterdam, and later the British, who again rechristened this area New York. As a result of the near-continuous cycle of demolition and construction that has characterized so much of New York’s history, little evidence of the earliest structures—both Native and European—survives. Yet the Dutch and British settlements laid the ground work for future expansion. With a population concentrated at the southern tip of the island, subsequent development continuously pushed northward. Infrastructure projects like the Brooklyn Bridge, completed in 1883, physically connected Manhattan to then-neighboring city of Brooklyn, and subsequent bridges and tunnels further linked the island to its surroundings, creating a regional metropolis. Because of New York’s significance to national history—for a short time, it was the capital of the early Republic, and in the 20th and 21st centuries it is a capital of finance, media, and visual culture—literature on the city’s built environment is vast. This bibliography thus proceeds from general resources to a chronology that begins in the late 18th century, and continues up to recent developments in the architecture and urban planning that shape the city in the early 21st century.

Fits-and-Starts: The Changing Nature of the Material City

How and why does the material city in the late 20th and early 21st century change? This article examines one type of prominent urban change, which is “fits-and-starts” and represents change that is concentrated in space and time and that nonetheless has longer term repercussions with high economic and environmental costs. Through a review of the literature and an illuminating case study in Las Vegas, this article reveals how human perception and decision-making via two interrelated phenomena, future speculation and manufactured obsolescence, drive such change. The case study in Las Vegas is particularly fascinating because as a city of apparent extremes, it not only reveals in clear relief phenomena that are present in the capitalist city but it also offers insights into basic patterns of decision-making that actually shape—or design—the contemporary city. The article concludes with more general insights into the nature of this type of urban change and implications for alternative types of urban practices.

Synanthropic rodent fauna of Eastern Transbaikalia in the early 21st century

The article provides information on the synanthropic rodent fauna of Eastern Transbaikalia. In 2017–2020 the city of Chita, the town of Baley and small settlements of Zabaykalsky krai were surveyed. True synanthropes: the house mouse and the brown rat are most abundant in residential landscapes. Natural populations of the house mouse are typical for coastal biotopes of the steppe zone, and the brown rat is typical for forest-steppe zone of Zabaykalsky krai. In Chita (administrative centre of Zabaykalsky krai) the share of the brown rat in rodent communities has considerably increased in recent decades. There is an extension of the brown rat’s habitat in the area of Baikal-Amur Mainline. Optional synanthropes: striped field mouse, striped dwarf hamster, Maximowicz’s vole, and narrow-headed vole are less important in residential landscapes of the region. In the beginning of the 21st century the field mouse is extending its habitat to the disjunct zone to the west of Transbaikalia: it is now common in the residential area of the town of Baley. Penetration of another optional synanthropic species recorded in the neighbouring Siberian regions – the East European vole – has not been detected.

ЖАНРОВО-ІДЕОГРАФІЧНІ ТЕНДЕНЦІЇ У ПОЕТИЦІ СУЧАСНОЇ ДИТЯЧОЇ ЛІТЕРАТУРИ

The article attempts to explore the features of early 21st century Ukrainian poetry for children. The purpose of exploration is to identify the genre and ideographic features of poetry: innovation and traditionalism. Tracing the genre modifications of poetry and their common and distinctive features, the author addresses the key features of poetry for children in general: artistic and literary discourse, the functions of poetry, thematic direction, strophic structure of the poem, the existence of images, characters and others. The article proves that the basis for the renewal of poetic genres is traditional genres of folklore and poetry. There are organically updated folk genres in modern poetry for children (praise, scarecrows, fables, nonsense, counters, patter, games) and newly created genres (poetry-pictures, tricks, coloring books, checks, stumbling blocks, therapeutic poems). The search for new forms of expression of idiosyncrasies of artists leads to the emergence of original genres. These have appeared as an original phenomenon in the Ukrainian literature of the early 21st century and offer a wide scope for further research.

Revisiting the existence of the global warming slowdown during the early 21st century

There are heated debates on the existence of the global warming slowdown during the early 21st century. Although efforts have been made to clarify or reconcile the controversy over the issue, it is not explicitly addressed, restricting the understanding of global temperature change particularly under the background of increasing greenhouse-gas concentrations. Here, using extensive temperature datasets, we comprehensively reexamine the existence of the slowdown under all existing definitions during all decadal-scale periods spanning 1990-2017. Results show that the short-term linear-trend dependent definitions of slowdown make its identification severely suffer from the period selection bias, which largely explains the controversy over its existence. Also, the controversy is further aggravated by the significant impacts of the differences between various datasets on the recent temperature trend and the different baselines for measuring slowdown prescribed by various definitions. However, when the focus is shifted from specific periods to the probability of slowdown events, we find the probability is significantly higher in the 2000s than in the 1990s, regardless of which definition and dataset are adopted. This supports a slowdown during the early 21st century relative to the warming surge in the late 20th century, despite higher greenhouse-gas concentrations. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this decadal-scale slowdown is not incompatible with the centennial-scale anthropogenic warming trend, which has been accelerating since 1850 and never pauses or slows. This work partly reconciles the controversy over the existence of the warming slowdown and the discrepancy between the slowdown and anthropogenic warming.

Seeking a Place for Islam in Post-Soviet Russia

One of the main characteristics of the post-Soviet transformation was the religious resurgence. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the post-Soviet Islamic revival in the 1990s. The awakening of Islam and seeking the place for Muslims in the society significantly influenced the formation of today’s Russian Federation. The authors examine the factors that influenced the role of Islam in newly created post-Soviet Russia and the federal government’s response to its dynamics. The paper is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the Islamic revival after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The second chapter is focused on the Kremlin’s reaction to new radical movements that emerged during the Islamic awakening and the separatist sentiments in Russia’s Muslim regions. Using the qualitative research method, the authors drew a conclusion that Islamic radicalisation in post-Soviet Russia was caused by several external and internal factors. The political developments in the Russian Federation between the second half of the 1990s and the early 21st century were characterised by restrictions on religious freedom and consolidation of federalism.

Perspective Chapter: Water, Natural Disasters and Socio-Economic Development in the Early 21st Century

This chapter investigates the complex relationship between socio-economic development and environmental sustainability by focusing on one of the most vital natural phenomena: the water cycle. Considering the current public awareness of climate change and the growing number of natural disasters, focusing on this topic provides a better understanding of weaknesses and bottlenecks that 21st-century society faces daily. This work presents three case studies, different from each other but conceptually interconnected. The first case concerns the situation of lakes in the world, whose water in many cases is at risk of disappearing. In the second instance, we present the growing socio-economic risks generated by floods. Nowadays, floods play a fundamental role in influencing socio-economic development due to the dislocation of economic activities in Southeast Asian countries. Finally, we discuss desertification affecting large areas of the African continent. One aspect of great interest is the Grande Muraille Verte project promoted by numerous countries. Reforestation of large arid areas is the main issue; the attempt is to support local communities to implement agricultural and livestock activities. Socio-economic and environmental sustainability and resilience are the main challenges that countries, regions and local communities are facing.

Female festive costume of the Khanty and Mansi in the late 20th — early 21st century: dynamics and functions

In order to determine dynamics and causes of transformation of everyday dress into a festive costume, specifics and functions of the women’s costume of the Khanty and Mansi have been studied. Towards this, the comparative-typological method was employed to study the costume composition, its local features, and differences with respect to the traditional everyday dresses, and the functions of the costume were determined. The study is based upon the materials of ethnographic expeditions carried out in the 1990s–2010s in the regions occupied by the Ob Ugric population (North-West Siberia and Northern Trans-Urals). It has been ascertained that the festive costume commonly comprised a dress, a breast decoration, and a shawl, and in its local variants it was complemeted by other items. The costume was all-season and had common and local elements. The common elements include multi-completeness (it consists of several items), variability according to weather conditions, use of silk and woolen fabrics and beads. The local specifics are manifetsed in the costume composition, silhouette variability, and techniques of decoration. In the end of the 20th — beginning of the 21st century, traditional clothing of the Khanty and Mansi changed in the appearance due to the use of modern synthetic materials (it changed the colour, sillhuette, means and techniques of decoration) and became merely festive. To the large extent those changes were caused by the industrial development on the territory occupied by the Ob Ugric population in the last quarter of the 20th century, and later by the cultural, social, and economic transformations in Russia. The range of use of the traditional clothing shrank due to the spread of factory-made clothing. The growing interest to the ethnic culture stimulated demand for the national costume. It has become made from import synthetic fabrics, because the home-produced cotton fabrics disappeared from the shops. New fabrics changed the appearance of the clothing and its function, as it became merely festive.