Lithic Technology and Chronology of Initial Upper Paleolithic Assemblages at Tor Fawaz, Southern Jordan

The Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) is a key chrono-cultural concept in our understanding of the cultural and population dynamics at the transition from the Middle Paleolithic to Upper Paleolithic period. This paper presents technological and chronological analyses of lithic assemblages from a rockshelter site at Tor Fawaz in the Jebel Qalkha area, southern Jordan, to provide accurate dating and detailed recognition of the IUP variability in the Levant. We present integrated micromorphological, phytolith, and dung spherulite analyses to evaluate formation and postdepositional processes of archaeological remains through high-resolution micro-contextual studies. As a result, the Tor Fawaz assemblages show general similarity to those of Boker Tachtit Level 4, Tor Sadaf A–B, and Wadi Aghar C–D1 that represent the late phase of the IUP in the southern Levant. Based on the detailed recognition of site-formation processes, we suggest ca. 45–36 ka as the age of IUP occupations at Tor Fawaz. More specifically, the IUP occupations at Tor Fawaz and Wadi Aghar, a nearby IUP site in the same area, may represent slightly different phases that show a lithic technological trend paralleling the IUP sequence at Tor Sadaf in southern Jordan, and possibly post-date Boker Tachtit Level 4. We also discuss the issue of partial chronological overlap between the late IUP and the Ahmarian and also argue for the geographically different trends in cultural changes from the late IUP to the Ahmarian.

Are cultural safety definitions culturally safe? A review of 42 cultural safety definitions in an Australian cultural concept soup

Cultural safety is a keystone reform concept intended to improve First Nations Peoples’ health and wellbeing. Are definitions of cultural safety, in themselves, culturally safe? A purposive search of diverse sources in Australian identified 42 definitions of cultural safety. Structuration theory informed the analytical framework and was applied through an Indigenist methodology. Ten themes emerged from this analysis, indicating that cultural risk is embedded in cultural safety definitions that diminish (meddlesome modifications and discombobulating discourse), demean (developmentally dubious and validation vacillations), and disempower (professional prose, redundant reflexivity, and scholarly shenanigans) the cultural identity (problematic provenance and ostracised ontology) of First Nations Australians. We offer four guidelines for future definitional construction processes, and methodology and taxonomy for building consensus based of definitions of cultural safety. Using this approach could reduce cultural risk and contribute to improved workforce ability to respond to the cultural strengths of First Nations Australians.

Reinterpreting local wisdom of Rumah Kaki Seribu as sustainable architecture

Awareness of the increasing global issues regarding global warming and climate change has encouraged building designers to look back on knowledge of traditional architecture as energy-efficient and sustainable solutions. This study focuses on the traditional architecture of Rumah Kaki Seribu as sustainable architecture. Rumah Kaki Seribu is a traditional architecture located in the Arfak Mountains, West Papua, inhabited by the Arfak Tribe. Each architectural element of Rumah Kaki Seribu has a different sustainability value. The sustainability value of Rumah Kaki Seribu discussed is the concentration on the fireplace element and the roof element. The fireplace and roof elements were analyzed using the eco-cultural concept of the six competing logics of sustainable architecture by Simon Guy and Graham Farmer. Eco-cultural logic is a logic that is closely related to traditional architecture. The characteristics of sustainable buildings that use eco-cultural logic can be determined by looking at several parameters, namely the image of space, the source of environmental knowledge, the building image, technologies, and the idealized concept of place. The study aims to learn traditional architecture as a design approach to understand and respect the environmental context for solutions to global issues that occur.

Mutualitas Si Tou Timou Tumou Tou: Hospitalitas Kultural Toleransi Komunitas Jawa Muslim dan Minahasa Kristen di Tondano

This paper will analyze and provide a general description of the philosophical meaning of Si Tou Timou Tumou Tou in the Javanese Muslim and Christian Minahasa communities in Tondano. More deeply, the author tries to see how the philosophy of life of Si Tou Timou Tumou Tou, which is the slogan of the Minahasa people, is applied and lived by the Javanese Muslim and Christian Minahasa communities in Tondano as an glue and an effort to build relationships with the lives of various communities. This paper draws a temporary conclusion that in order to encourage peaceful relations and the creation of the maintenance of shared life, a concept of cultural hospitality that goes beyond tolerance is needed in accordance with the context of the problems in each region. Using a sociological perspective, this paper examines the extent to which cultural hospitality values can play a role in interfaith relations in Tondano. In the final section, this paper will explore the cultural concept of the Tondano people as embodied in the philosophy of life of Si Tou Timou Tumou Tou as an effort to go beyond tolerance between religious communities, while at the same time maintaining the existence of the historical heritage of local culture.

Axiological density of the linguocultural concept

The article is devoted to determining the factors of axiological features of cognitive forms. The main approaches related to the evaluation specification of linguistic and cultural concepts (structural and semantic) are outlined and analyzed. It is explained that the structural features of the linguo-cultural concept (historical and actual layers, domains and modular parts, nuclear and near-nuclear zone) determine its axiological features. The structure of the representation of knowledge is evaluative specified by the characteristics of its name (internal form, in equivalence, denotation and connotation, etc.). It is argued that the axiological characteristics of the concept are determined by external factors: belonging to one or different cultures, a particular subculture, the amount of collective historical, subjective emotional, and concrete-sensory experience, position on other concepts, rooted in the system of background knowledge, carrier mentality, stereotypes, as well as subjects of material and spiritual culture, etc. The term “axiological density of linguistic and cultural concept” was introduced into scientific circulation and an algorithm for its definition was proposed with the help of an integrative approach. Based on this algorithm, the modal (axiological) component of the linguistic and cultural concept of “time” in the poetic discourse of the 20th-21st centuries is analyzed.

Aesthetic education in the aspect of the ecology of culture

The object of this research is the ecological-cultural concept, which is based on the theory of the noosphere. Special emphasis is placed on the ethical ecology. The author explores the essence and specificity of the noospheric reality, as well as the role of the new scientific direction – ecology of culture in development of the ideas of environmental safety in modern world. The subject of this research is the aesthetic education in the context of the ecology of culture, the concept formulated by the Academician D. S. Likhachev. The author believes that aesthetic education in the context of the ecology of culture is an irreplaceable instrument for the formation of environmental competencies of an individual. The concept of aesthetic education developed by B. T. Likhachev, as well as the latest approaches in art therapy are used as the examples. Analysis is conducted on the theoretical and practical literature that allows revealing the essence and specificity of aesthetic education in light of the ecological-cultural concept. The acquired results can be used in the development of academic programs and methodologies in the field of aesthetic education and art therapy for dealing with different population categories. The novelty consists in the fact that this article is  first to examine the essence and specificity of aesthetic education in the context of ecological-cultural concept based on the representations of the noosphere. The author's contribution consists in comparison of different, at first glance, concepts (the theory of noosphere, ecological-cultural concept, concept of aesthetic education) and obtain the results that are relevant for both, theoretical research and practical use. The main conclusions are as follows: 1. The development of ecological-cultural representations is fully implemented only in the context of the theory of noosphere. 2. The aesthetic education in the context of the ecology of culture is currently a powerful instrument for the formation of environmental competencies of an individual.

Invoking divine blessing

This study explores the speech act of congratulation in university graduation notebooks, a new communicative context in Jordan. Using the concept of the pragmeme as a situated speech act, a total of 1064 congratulatory messages, found in 35 notebooks, were analyzed. The analysis demonstrated that the cultural concept of baraka ‘blessing’ plays a central role in the Arabic congratulation speech act. Embedded in its production are other speech acts such as compliments and advice, sociocultural beliefs and concepts such as fatalism and collectivism, and sociocultural practices such as naqout ‘money given as a gift’. Invoking these values and beliefs when performing congratulations was accomplished through ritualistic religious invocations, formulaic expressions, reference to collective identity, and acts of material support, showing how this Arabic speech act is situated in sociocultural beliefs and values.

Border Crossings Through the Eyes of a Female Narrator: Concept Border in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Literary Discourse

Many recent studies have focused on the depiction of BORDER from the point of view of cognitive linguistics, gender studies, cultural studies. However, little research has been undertaken to study the books for children that address questions of borderlands, territorial and metaphorical borders in historical and modern fiction among which is Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House Series. The objective of this article is to study the portrayal of cultural concept BORDER from the perspective of a female child narrator in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s literary discourse, focusing on the depiction of territorial and metaphorical borders in order to establish the possible influences and interrelations. The multidisciplinary approach that combines the methods and former research findings of such disciplines as cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics, border studies, discourse studies is implemented to determine the narrator model and the peculiarities of psychonarration in the book series; classify concept BORDER from the point of view of cognitive linguistics and restructure its components; provide an analysis of the figurative and associative layer of the cultural concept BORDER and examine the role of the verbalization of feelings and emotions in the portrayal of territorial and metaphorical border crossings in Wilder’s books. Overall, it is assumed that the female child narrator has been chosen by the author based on the psychological peculiarities of the target audience of the books. The results indicate that the combination of the external and internal forms of psychonarration ensures a clearer portrayal of the female perception of border crossings in the analyzed discourse. The territorial and metaphorical borders depicted in Wilder’s works are interwoven and influenced by historical, biographical, gender, and psychological peculiarities.

The Films of Aleksey Fedorchenko: Between Cultural Mythmaking and Playing with a Document

This article studies the films of Alexey Fedorchenko in order to discover the dominant features of his artistic world. This is based on the guiding principles of documentary filmmaking, with its commitment to fact, the reliability of archival sources, trust in physical reality, and addressing the laws of the art of presentation, where a free play with reality becomes a dominant feature in its most diverse forms from documentation to mystification. The director creates his own coherent world of fiction and non-fiction, based on strategies of the cultural matrix of mythmaking as a means of understanding and experiencing the “arrangement” of the world. The purpose of the article is to study Fedorchenko’s films in order to discover the dominant feature of his artistic world. The first methodological basis for the analysis of his films is a cultural concept of art where art is understood not only as the self-consciousness of culture, but also as an object that depends on all subsystems of culture, both material and spiritual. The cinematography of Fedorchenko stems from a special type of artistic consciousness, which determines (predetermines) the subject and conceptual sphere of his artistic expression. Analysing the films of Fedorchenko, the author identifies the dominant feature of his artistic consciousness, which is focused on a reflective attitude towards culture and traditions. This type of artistic consciousness is understood as culture-centric. The culture-centric type of artistic consciousness ignores nature and its mimetic imitation, but at the same time, the dominating idea determining the source of artistic creation becomes a conscious attitude to culture as material that requires interpretation in a new context, as a space that generates meanings. Fedorchenko uses myth as source material and cultural space in his films. However, he does not deal with the cinematic adaptation of myths. He creates them on his own, using the logic of a mythological narrative, the peculiarities of mythological space and time. That is why the second methodological basis of the article is the classical concepts from A. Losev, R. Barthes and M. Eliade. The author mostly refers to documentaries and feature films by the director, as well as his mockumentaries. The study identifies certain algorithms in which documentary historical events acquire the characteristics of myth, and mythmaking becomes a key to understanding the truth.

Colonial Racial Ethnocentrism Towards Indigenous People in a Short Story Collection “Semua untuk Hindia” by Iksaka Banu (A Postcolonial Study)

Dutch colonialism in Indonesia brought about physical oppression and conquest of territory and instilled racism. Understanding racism positions the indigenous people as a third class whose rank has never been higher than the Dutch. Racial ethnocentrism leads people to concepts and views of life that consider their culture to be far superior to the culture owned by others. This study aimed to reveal and describe the forms of racial ethnocentrism brought by the Dutch towards Indonesian society. The data were obtained from excerpts or quotes that contain elements of racism from a short story collection “Semua untuk Hindia (All for Hindia)” by Iksaka Banu. The analysis results revealed that racial ethnocentrism or racism emerged in racial prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination in the short story collection. The cultivation of these ethnocentric behaviors was based on the Western cultural concept and view of ideal human beings and the human position passed down from generation to generation. It impacted the Dutch’s social construction and use of authority in oppressing the indigenous people in Indonesia. Indigenous figures were oppressed, marginalized, and their human rights were ignored. Research on the short story collection can strengthen the disclosure of colonialism history in Indonesia.