From Aboriginal Equality to Limited and Unstable Inequality

During the first 97 percent of the approximately 200,000-year history of Homo sapiens, when humans existed as hunter-gatherers and early agriculturalists, they lived with little political and economic inequality, due to the ready availability of stone weapons and ability of the weaker ones to form defensive coalitions blocking bullies’ attempts to amass political power. Their egalitarian incentive structure rewarded them for sharing food, child care, and practically everything else. The slow adoption of agriculture beginning about 10,000 years ago created the material condition on which a limited degree of social hierarchy could develop. About 9,000 years ago, chiefs arose by ideologically claiming special access to celestial powers to better assure the welfare of the community. They thereby gained greater access to material goods and mates. However, their legitimacy was fragile, readily upset by poor harvests or other catastrophes that delegitimated their ideology and returned their societies to economic and political equality.

Early Medieval Kyrgyz burial from the Upper Irtysh region

In Central Asia in the second half of the 1st millennium A.D., there were development and rapid change of large polyethnic state formations of allied congeneric groups of the Turkic people, Uigurs, Kyrgyz, Kimaks, and Kipchaks. The material goods of most of the tribal unions are unidentified and cannot be associated with the names of specific ethnic groups known from the written sources. Continuance and cultural affinity of the succes-sive nomadic communities are based upon identity of the subsistence systems in similar natural and climatic con-ditions. The Kyrgyz (Khakass) Khaganate, which emerged in the Upper Yenisei region, was one of the Early Me-dieval states. In the second half of the 9th century, the authority of the Kyrgyz khagans spread onto the vast terri-tories of Central Asia. The main culture-forming attribute of the Kyrgyz ethnos is cremation burials. The study of the cremation burials found beyond the ancestral homeland of the Kyrgyz allows tracing the intertribal contacts and directions of military campaigns of the Kyrgyz during the period of their “greatpowerness”. In this paper, mate-rials of the burial mound of Menovnoe VIII, situated in the territory of the Upper Irtysh 2.1 km south-east from the village of Menovnoe, Tavrichesky district, East-Kazakhstan Region, are analysed. Under the mound of the kurgan, there was a fence with an outbuilding. The central grave contained a cremation burial, and the outbuilding — an adolescent burial and a sacrificial pit with a horse carcass split into halves. The grave goods are represented by a bronze waistbelt clasp and a fragment of an iron object. Alongside the horse, there was a quiver with three arrow-heads and a rasp-file, as well as part of a bridle (a snaffle bit fixed to a wooden cheekpiece and a bronze buckle tip). The specifics of the burial rite and analysis of the material obtained during the study of the funeral complex allows attribution of the Menovnoe-VIII kurgan 8 graves to representatives of the Kyrgyz-Khakass antiquities, who were in contact with the rulers of the Kimak Khaganate during the second half of the 8th — 10th century.

The Desire for Enrichment as a Cause of Corruption of the Republic

This study is devoted to the problem of material enrichment in the framework of Republican political theory. The aim of the work is to determine how the private desire for wealth correlates with the republican public virtues and affects the corruptio of the republic. The fact is that the desire for enrichment is the realization of a private self-interest. At the same time, the key republican virtue for the classical period — virtu — also assumes the presence of a private interest. In this regard, the author provides a theoretical justification for the permissibility of the desire for enrichment within the framework of republicanism.The research methods are comparative, historical methods, as well as the methodology of the Cambridge school. Within the framework of the analysis of the texts of the Republican tradition, the author comes to the following results.The corruptio of the republic takes place in cases where citizens are willing to compromise with the centralized political power of the state, giving up republican freedom for the sake of security and wealth. The most striking manifestation of this compromise is the transfer to the state of the function of distributing material goods in society. Wealth itself, in accordance with the classic Republican critique of statism, becomes dangerous when it replaces virtue, or becomes the price for which a person is willing to sell his freedom.At the same time, the most dangerous form of such a deal can be called a compromise, in which republican institutions continue to function formally, but political participation in society is replaced by police state control. Corruption of morals, therefore, occurs when people are willing to give up personal freedom for the sake of material well-being and convenience. However, at the same time, there is an amazing ideological substitution, according to which the political sphere begins to be called the state apparatus, which as such suppresses politics. This is the moment at which the corruptio of the republic takes place.As a result of the study, the author concludes that an effective compromise between a deviation from republican principles and private welfare is impossible. However, the desire to enrich itself can even be useful for the republic.

The Significance of Cultural Policy—Case Study of South Korea

The main research problem that this article focuses on is: does a wide-ranging cultural policy contribute to the implementation of the idea of sustainable development in practice? This article aims to show, using the example of South Korea, the importance of the state’s cultural policy as a factor that is conducive to economic success and an increase in the standard of living of a society. This policy leads to the evolution of society from one centered on the mass consumption of material goods to one centered on the mass consumption of cultural goods, which, combined with the development of creative industries, contributes to the implementation of the elements of sustainable development in practice. The research methods used in the work were the study of literature in the studied area, the analysis of documents and reports on cultural policy, and the development of cultural and creative industries. An assessment of the degree to which pop culture development in South Korea is a factor in the economic development of the country, given its commercial nature and its ability to increase the standards of living of an entire society, was also carried out. The example of South Korea shows the benefits for the national economy of promoting creativity and culture. Preferences and consumer attitudes are shaped in areas that have a minimal impact on the natural environment and the exploitation of natural resources.

Behavioral and Psychosocial Context of Pharmaceutical Cognitive Enhancers` Misuse

Background In an effort for better memory, greater motivation and concentration, otherwise healthy individuals use Pharmaceutical Cognitive Enhancers (PCE), medicines for the treatment of cognitive deficits of patients with various disorders and health problems, to achieve greater productivity, efficiency, and performance. Methods In our study, we examined the use of PCE use among 289 students at the Slovenian Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the behavioral and psychosocial context (students’ attitudes towards study, parents, health, leisure time and work). Furthermore, we addressed also the immediate reasons, or the hypothesized connections of behavioral and psychosocial aspects, related to PCE misuse. The study consisted of a structured questionnaire, and the chi-square tests were used. Results An analysis of student statements revealed differences in students` and parents` attitudes toward good academic grades. In addition, students chose among 17 values relating to relationships with parents, friends, partners, careers, study obligations, leisure, hobbies, material goods, appearance and the future, and assessed their importance. Regardless of the group they belonged to, young people cited the same values among the most important. Good grades and parental opinions have proven to be key factors in the context of PCE abuse. Conclusions This research was the first study to examine the relation between PCE misuse and the role of different behavioral and psychosocial factors. However, the further research is needed, both on the actual effects of PCE on healthy people, as well as on continuing research towards behavioral and psychosocial factors.

Typology and effects of economic sanctions on foreign trade

Economic sanctions are defined in the dictionary of economics, in general, as ,,prohibitive economic measures applied by the international community on the export and/ or import of material goods, services, resources, etc. to or from a particular country”. The types of sanctions range from personal restrictions to almost total bans on international trade with one or more countries, which can be extended even to restrictions on legal rights such as trademark protection and other intellectual property. Sometimes sanctions can be included as part of protectionist measures representing behaviors designed to increase wealth without creating wealth, the most famous cases being attempts to force a country's authorities into desirable political action. Usually, these attempts target political and economic leaders, businesses and assets that are considered vulnerable to external pressures. Although some doubt the effectiveness of sanctions, the prevailing opinion is slightly in their favor.

Automatic Identification of Products – A Way of Streamlining the Logistical Support of the Military Unit

The new products provided by the development of information technology (scanners, barcodes, RFIDs, etc.) can currently provide methods and techniques towards achieving important savings in terms of management of logistical support of military units, especially in terms of efficiency in providing material goods to combat forces that are preparing and training through military exercises. I set out to make an “x-ray” of this way of improving the logistical support, especially through the method of identification by labels that use radiofrequency (Radio Frequency Identification/RFID).

Innovative Solutions for Disaster Early Warning and Alert Systems: A Literary Review

In different parts of the world, decision-makers and risk managers use specific and particularly complex disaster early warning and alert systems to protect people and their material goods from the harmful effects of various disasters in a timely, efficient and appropriate manner. However, concerning the level of scientific-technological and economic development of certain countries, such systems can differ in the many characteristics that make them more efficient in specific situations. Guided by this, the subject of the paper is reflected in the systematic identification, analysis, and classification of the best innovative solutions of early warning systems regarding their usability and efficiency. To find appropriate innovative solutions, it was performed a search of different electronic databases. The findings of this review showed that there is a huge potential for innovative solutions in the field of disaster early warning and alert systems.

Socialist Construction for Siberia: Comecon Cooperation and the Making of Ust`-Ilimsk Forest Industrial Complex in the USSR, 1970s and 1980s

This article examines the history of socialist collaboration in Comecon through the lens of a large industrial project in Soviet Siberia. It examines the construction of the Ust`-Ilimsk forest industrial complex which was conceived as a collective effort of six socialist European countries. On the one hand, the project formed part of the Soviet Union's strategy of technological colonization of Soviet Eastern lands, and on the other, it aimed to enhance socialist collaboration and integration efforts through the exchange of material goods and expertise, as prescribed by the project agreements. The paper focuses on the interplay between ideological implications, national interests and material shortages when completing the project, showing the contradictory nature of socialist collaborative construction. It argues that the Soviet central government sought material resources for the construction from ‘brother’ socialist countries with an ideological emphasis on how important it was for further cooperation in the Eastern bloc. In fact, the project exposed difficulties, ranging from material shortages typical of state socialism and the predominance of national economic interests, with the result that this socialist project was compelled to also make use of Western equipment and expertise, transforming Ust`-Ilimsk from a socialist to a far more international construction site.

Bach and Material Culture

Bach’s music is often interpreted as transcending the material conditions of everyday life. This chapter, by contrast, argues that Bach scholarship could be enriched via approaches taken from the study of material culture. It places Bach within the vibrant consumer culture of early-eighteenth-century Leipzig, exploring his postmortem inventory and his keyboard publications in the context of how the town’s bourgeoisie used material goods to show their status and identity. It investigates Bach’s printed and manuscript music in terms of the social practices surrounding these material artifacts. Finally, the chapter relates Bach’s working practices to debates about the interplay of human and material agency. It discusses how he experimented with the material characteristics of instruments such as organs, and analyzes his compositional practice as an interaction between player-composer and contrapuntal materials.